As rebuilding plans progress in the wake of last Friday's fire, the future of one of the businesses that was housed in the Muneshwers complex remains uncertain.
"We don't know anything as yet," part-owner of the local Subway franchise Abigail Yong said yesterday, when asked to give a timeframe for the reconstruction of the outlet.
Subway, along with the Maersk shipping company and the Muneshwers travel agency, was devastated by a fire of unknown origin that begun in a bond on the southern side of the complex where they were housed.
Although rebuilding Subway remains a possibility, Yong, who likened the destruction to the loss of a family member, said it would depend on many factors, including the processing of the insurance claims.
After the fire started, Yong said, she was assured that Subway was safe, since the flames were far away at the top of the Muneshwers hardware store.
"My brother told me everything would be alright... he said Subway is not going to burn down. Some people told me everything would be okay... I guess all of us were wrong."
The devastation of the franchise also has implications for another business, the Palm Court restaurant and bar that was recently re-opened by Yong and her brother Brian, who is also a part-owner of the franchise.
"Subway was supporting both businesses... the little money we were getting from Subway, we were trying to put as much of it as we could in here," she said.
The Subway workers are still technically on staff, although Yong said she was also unsure about what would happen to them. Employing them at the Palm Court is one of the options that has been considered. Although there were plans prior to the fire to set up a sandwich unit at the Palm Court she pointed out that the job requirements are very different. "We will try to help them as much as we can ...[and] we would love if we could have all of them."
Meanwhile, one disturbing dimension of the fire was the reaction of the crowd which gathered outside Subway. As flames engulfed the building, some onlookers actually cheered for the destruction, while Yong and her staff looked on in horror. "People were shouting: Let the place burn down! They don't want poor people to get anything!"
Yong said one woman who was chanting even returned the morning after to ask for money for all the hard work she had done the night before.
While the fire spread and the building was evacuated with what could be saved, looters saw their opportunity. As Yong and staff ran out of the building, looters ran inside, trying to get what they could before the fire reached the office. This was despite the presence of some policemen who tried to control the crowd.
But by Saturday, with all the policemen gone, looters returned and ravaged the building and only the presence of armed guards forced them to relent, later in the day.
Yong said the policemen should have remained to protect the stores from the looters, who are always around fires in the city.