Hadfield St fire
Still no report on water company's probe
Stabroek News
November 21, 2003
The Guyana Water Inc's (GWI) report on the investigations into last week's devastating fire, which destroyed Royal Castle, Auto Supplies Ltd and Mohamed's Enterprise, which was promised yesterday was not forthcoming up to press time.
The lack of water to fight the fire has sparked public ridicule. Many felt that the businesses could have been saved had there been a ready supply of water.
GWI's Assistant Public Relations Officer, Javin Singh, told Stabroek News yesterday that at the time of the fire the utility company had reduced pumping in keeping with its schedule.
He said that after GWI received a call informing of the fire, the water was immediately turned on to the area and the supply remained steady throughout the night.
But Stabroek News could not get confirmation from Singh as to the exact time that the GWI received the call and how soon after that water was made available to the area.
GWI had issued a press release on Wednesday saying that a press release would be issued on the report yesterday but up to press time last night this was not forthcoming.
Efforts to contact the Guyana Power and Light for a comment as to the effectiveness of inter-utility coordination in the event of emergencies were not successful.