Ralph Ban­warie

Fire of­fi­cers were up to late yes­ter­day try­ing to as­cer­tain the ori­gin of a fire which de­stroyed a block fac­to­ry in San­gre Grande ear­li­er in the day.

Loss­es were said to be mil­lions of dol­lars.

A re­port said apart from the ware­house, one truck two fork­lifts, a con­crete mix­er and oth­er ma­chines were de­stroyed.

Own­er of the Pal­let and Brick Fac­to­ry claimed fire of­fi­cers from the San­gre Grande Fire Sta­tion took more than an hour to re­spond and when they ar­rived they went in­to the com­pound of XTRA Foods.

“I had to go across to XTRA Foods and tell the fire of­fi­cer the fire is next door,” he claimed.

He said by the time the fire of­fi­cers ar­rived on his com­pound on East­ern Main Road Tu­rure, San­gre Grande, the en­tire ware­house and one house was en­gulfed in flames.

How­ev­er, the of­fi­cers con­tained the fire from spread­ing to near­by hous­es with the as­sis­tance of fire ap­pli­ances from Ari­ma.

Al­ix Ram­dass Sand and Grav­el Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed sup­plied portable wa­ter to the fire ten­ders.

Samp­son said the fire be­gan around 11.45 am. He was un­able to say how it start­ed. He used to sup­ply pal­lets to AS Bry­den and Sons. The fire has left eight em­ploy­ees out of a job.

Asked if his com­pa­ny was in­sured he said “I can’t say yes or no, I have to ask my sis­ter. All I know is that the dam­age will run in­to mil­lions.

Natasha Hamil­ton, a moth­er of two and sin­gle par­ent whose house was de­stroyed in the fire, said every­thing was burnt.

She said school books and uni­forms be­long­ing to her chil­dren who at­tend North East­ern Col­lege and Guaico Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry re­spec­tive­ly, were al­so de­stroyed.

She is now ap­peal­ing for as­sis­tance. “I am trau­ma­tised as well as my two chil­dren. Fam­i­ly mem­bers have pledged to give lodg­ing but can­not say for how long,” she said.

The fire of­fi­cers said they had no wa­ter prob­lem, but by the time they ar­rived at the ware­house it was al­ready en­gulfed in flames and the best thing they could have done was to con­tain the fire from spread­ing to near­by hous­es.

When asked FS­SO Lakhan for com­ment he said he was un­able to do so be­cause of pro­to­col.