Fire Service still dousing Ogle fire two days later; woman protested construction of bond in residential area

By Kurt Campbell

[www.inewsguyana.com] – Two days after the ghastly fire that rendered several persons homeless, destroyed a storage bond belonging to Beepats – a leading distributor in Guyana – and burned a nearby house, at Ogle, East Coast Demerara firefighters were seen on the ground  on Sunday morning (October 13) dousing the scene.

Fire and smoke could still been seen emanating from the storage bond. According to one firefighter on the ground, they were conducting their ‘mapping up exercise’ with the expectation of completing same by tomorrow.

One resident explained that the storage facility was once a house before it was transformed to a bond. She also related that there were objections from one resident against the construction of the bond.

“But because they big and she small and they get money, nothing happened,” the resident stated.

She further claimed that the employees that worked at the bond knew about the fire from the inception but failed to notify residents in the area.

“They know about the fire and didn’t tell nobody they just lock up the gate, at least this woman house or her things could have been saved if they had notified us, we only know about the fire when we start hearing the sounds and when we look out we see fire coming from the top of the building,” she explained.

Efforts to contact the Fire Chief to establish if all procedures were followed in the construction of the bond proved futile.

The Beepats have not spoken publicly of the incident since. However, one relative of the family oriented business; Jonathan Beepat was at the scene on Friday but refused to comment. It is however widely believed that the family has suffered millions, if not billions in losses.