Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

An ear­ly morn­ing fire yes­ter­day de­stroyed the old wood­en Min­istry of Health build­ing lo­cat­ed on the site of the for­mer Ch­agua­nas Health Cen­tre, a struc­ture that had stood for more than 50 years.

The build­ing was pre­vi­ous­ly used by the Dis­trict Med­ical Of­fice be­fore the health cen­tre was re­lo­cat­ed from the area more than a decade ago to make way for a ven­dors’ mall. The mall was sub­se­quent­ly closed on April 1, 2026, and the ven­dors were re­lo­cat­ed to the Ch­agua­nas Mar­ket to make way for a trans­porta­tion hub.

The struc­ture was gut­ted by flames short­ly af­ter 4 am.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia hours lat­er, Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion al­der­man Whit­ney Steven­son-Ham­let, who is al­so chair­man of the CBC’s Mar­ket and Vend­ing Com­mit­tee, said he was in­formed of the blaze by fire of­fi­cials short­ly af­ter it start­ed.

“I ar­rived at the scene around 5.15 am and by then a num­ber of fire of­fi­cers al­ready had the sit­u­a­tion un­der con­trol,” Steven­son-Ham­let said.

She es­ti­mat­ed that be­tween 10-15 fire­fight­ers were on site bat­tling the blaze and work­ing to pre­vent it from spread­ing.

The al­der­man said the build­ing be­longed to the Health Min­istry and con­tained some old files. She de­scribed the struc­ture as an old, di­lap­i­dat­ed build­ing that had re­mained on the prop­er­ty for sev­er­al decades.

Fire­fight­ers al­so re­quest­ed heavy equip­ment to as­sist with the op­er­a­tion. Steven­son-Ham­let said a back­hoe and truck were dis­patched to the scene to help clear parts of the struc­ture, en­abling crews to ful­ly con­tain the fire.

While the cause of the blaze re­mains un­known, Steven­son-Ham­let said the build­ing did not have an elec­tric­i­ty sup­ply.

“The in­ves­ti­ga­tion is on­go­ing, but I know the build­ing had no cur­rent, so that is a mat­ter of con­cern,” she said.

The fire oc­curred on lands which have been iden­ti­fied for the de­vel­op­ment of the long-dis­cussed Ch­agua­nas Trans­port Hub.

Steven­son-Ham­let said dis­cus­sions be­tween the CBC, taxi op­er­a­tors and maxi-taxi as­so­ci­a­tions are con­tin­u­ing as plans for the trans­port hub move for­ward.

Fire of­fi­cials are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions to de­ter­mine the cause of the blaze.

Ch­agua­nas May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed said the for­mer ven­dors’ mall site was a dis­as­ter wait­ing to hap­pen.

“Many ques­tioned the de­ci­sion to clear the for­mer Ven­dors’ Mall and re­move the di­lap­i­dat­ed struc­tures that once oc­cu­pied the area. How­ev­er, those struc­tures were iden­ti­fied as a sig­nif­i­cant fire haz­ard. To­day’s in­ci­dent demon­strates ex­act­ly why those dif­fi­cult de­ci­sions had to be made,’ he said.

“Had those aban­doned and de­te­ri­o­rat­ing struc­tures re­mained in place, the sit­u­a­tion this morn­ing could have been far more se­vere, with a greater risk to lives, near­by busi­ness­es, and emer­gency re­spon­ders. Lead­er­ship re­quires mak­ing re­spon­si­ble de­ci­sions in the in­ter­est of pub­lic safe­ty, even when those de­ci­sions are not al­ways pop­u­lar.”

He said the fire was a pow­er­ful re­minder that pre­ven­tion, pre­pared­ness and de­ci­sive ac­tion save lives.