For the second time in 12 months, a multi-million dollar fire in the heart of Port of Spain has again destroyed several buildings.
By Gregory Lal-BeharieAs with the previous blaze, firemen struggled once again for water yesterday but in a first for firefighting in the country, a helicopter carried water from the Gulf of Paria in a late attempt to contain the blaze.
Three buildings have been destroyed, including Republic Bank Ltd's Frederick Street branch opposite Woodford Square, and two other buildings south of the bank.
Reports are that shortly after 5 p.m. flames were seen coming from a four-storey building housing the Naughty Girls lingerie store on the ground floor. A man who only identified himself as a friend of the owners of Naughty Girls said: "The manager just closed the store, then he got a call about ten minutes later saying that smoke was filling the store. That was close to 6 p.m." Within half hour the buildings adjacent to that store were also engulfed in flames.
Firefighters on the scene around 6.30 p.m. seemed to be struggling and in disarray as they sought to fight the flames with limited water from their trucks. The salt water mains gradually began to be energised. But by then two of the buildings were no more than shells. Republic Bank's top floor was ablaze and the facade of the building began melting away.
Systems technician at WASA, Russell Peters said: "All our supplies are open. There was water, but we boosted it up" while chief executive officer of WASA, Errol Grimes, assured that emergency measures had been introduced, which included additional water in private trucks.
The fire threatened to spread to businesses on Henry Street as the owner of House of Hair next to Standards begged fire officers to attack the fire from that street. The Express visited Henry Street, but there were no signs of fire fighting equipment.
Then shortly after 7 p.m. a helicopter arrived on the scene and began ferrying water from the nearby sea, but water was leaking heavily and little of it hit the target during the first few runs. Eventually, flying lower, the helicopter began attacking the blaze and seemed to have some impact.
Up to presstime firemen were yet to contain the blaze, and the nearby Singer Building housing the fabric store Mode Alive seemed to be the next likely victim of the flames.
President of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association Gregory Aboud said last night that much more damage could have been caused.
