Stabroek News Chief Photogra-pher Ken Moore who saw smoke from the Sacred Heart Church fire on Saturday while at the Bourda Market captured this scene of the church well alit before the Guyana Fire Service arrived. Both the presbytery/ parish hall (left)
The Guyana Fire Service has attributed the catastrophic Christmas Day fire on Main Street to carelessness.
And responding to claims of delays by the fire service to the emergency summons Chief Fire Officer, Lawrence David told Stabroek News that the fire service responded promptly.
The Christmas Day fire levelled the historic Sacred Heart Church, Sacred Heart presbytery/parish hall, Sacred Heart Primary School, Blades' Customs Brokerage and Kirpalani Bond and caused millions of dollars in damage to King Solomon's Enterprise Ltd.
Contacted yesterday, David said that according to the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Ltd (GT&T) log, the fire service was informed some 18 minutes after the fire started. Members of the public said they were alerted by the clearly visible smoke and felt that the fire service should also have known much earlier.
According to reports from the Sacred Heart parish priest and parishioners, David said the fire was seen around 8:50 am and the first call the fire service received was at 9:08 am from the Guyana Police Force; the next call was at 9:09 am again from the Guyana Police Force; then at 09:10 am from Prime News and at 09:10 am from Mekdeci Investments Ltd.
Rubble: This is all that remains of what used to be the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, the Sacred Heart Primary and presbytery/parish hall. (Photo by Ken Moore)
The GT&T log, he said, does not show any calls to the fire service from a cellular telephone at the time. He assumed that the caller might have called 911, which is the police emergency line instead of the fire emergency line 912.
One parishioner told Stabroek News she had called the fire service as soon as the fire had been spotted and the tender came some 15 minutes later, but by that time the Sacred Heart Church was already engulfed. (See photo on page 1.) In addition, she said, it took the fire service some time to get water flowing from the hoses.
David said the GT&T log clearly debunked any report that the fire service had been alerted earlier about the fire. Being alerted 18 minutes late, he said would have caused the fire to develop.
He said he was concerned about the lengthy delays in informing the fire service. If the calls are made early, he said it would put the Guyana Fire Service in a better position to respond effectively. He said it was not the first time the Guyana Fire Service was being accused of not responding immediately.
In relation to claims of not being able to access water, David said there were two hydrants working and there was enough water in the drains from an early morning downpour. He said there was adequate water but the magnitude of the fire was such that it had to devour a certain amount of combustible material before it could be subdued. He said that was the normal procedure with fires whether there was capacity or incapacity.
"Clearly carelessness was the issue on Christmas Day with the use of defective electrical installation in the vicinity of combustible material," David said in reference to the fire. The blaze started in a nativity crib after sparking lights caught onto straw.
"A fire burning uncontrollably for 18 minutes is a mad raging inferno. How could people expect it to be brought under control immediately?"
The fire service operates 24 hours a day and an adequate number of firemen were on duty, he said. However, he noted that even off-duty firemen left the comfort of their homes to work to put the conflagration out and he commended them for that.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the fire that devoured the 143-year-old Sacred Heart Church, Conservation Officer of the National Trust Lloyd Kandasammy told Stabroek News that as far as he knew no plans were in place to protect the listed wooden heritage buildings in the city.
He said that the Board of Directors of the National Trust has had concerns about faulty electrical installations in heritage buildings and their task would now be to set up a committee to investigate the installations and where applicable to have them replaced.
Stabroek News understands that this plan had been in the pipeline for some time now but no action had been taken. Kandasammy would not confirm or deny this. Stabroek News was unable to contact Chairman of the Board, Dr James Rose on the issue.
Commenting on the reconstruction of the Sacred Heart Church, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Guyana, Bishop Francis Alleyne said at present the needs of the parishioners were being assessed and places identified for religious instructions and other parish activities. Plans are also in train to absorb the five persons who were employed by the church. Permission has been granted for the removal of the debris and the clearing exercise would begin today. A morning mass would be held at 9 am on New Year's Day primarily for parishioners.
No decisions have been made in relation to rebuilding the church but parishioners would be given the opportunity to share their thoughts and their hopes for the future of the church, which would also guide the Diocese's decisions.
To date, he said there have been several levels of response within the church with some echoing the sentiments of the late Bishop Galton who had said that never again should the Catholic Church rebuild in wood after the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Brickdam was completely gutted in 1913. The bishop had also said that anything rebuilt must be in concrete.
Bishop Alleyne said others are saying that the church needs to reassess its presence in the area which has become very commercialised. Some are claiming that the needs that were there in the 1860s are no longer there with the population shift.
Others are arguing that in spite of the population shift the church is very popular with persons from many other parishes attending masses and taking part in other church and parish activities there. Others feel that those persons from outside the parish and even within the Sacred Heart parish could be absorbed in other parishes such as Brickdam or Our Lady of Fatima.
The argument for rebuilding or not rebuilding the Sacred Heart School follows the same line as that for the church. However, schools in the North Georgetown area are grossly overcrowded.
Meanwhile, apart from the school, the church, the presbytery/parish hall, Kirpalani bond and Blades' Customs Brokerage, which were obliterated, King Solomon Enterprises Ltd's losses estimated at noon yesterday were in the vicinity of $50 million. Office Manager Madellow Scipio said the company was still in the process of assessing the damage.
Some 35 vehicles, which could not be pushed to safety because of the intensity of the heat, were damaged. There was also structural damage to the roof, ceilings and walls of the building. Most of the offices and their fixtures including carpets and office equipment were water soaked but business was still being conducted.
In addition 15 dogs, Doberman and rottweiler breeds, belonging to the company, which were penned on the premises, were burnt alive.
Scipio said the heat made it difficult for anyone to move office equipment but the company's master inventory was removed and has since been returned.
Electricity was restored to the affected businesses, which included Universal Airlines and the World Homes Guyana Inc. Water was still to be restored and the water tanks at King Solomon's had all melted.
Vice President of Universal Airlines Mark De Freitas told Stabroek News the disruption was minimal and staff concentrated their efforts on getting the computers up and running to deal with passengers who were travelling over the holidays.
Fortunately, he said there were no losses even though as a precaution most of the equipment was moved from the offices and stored at Customs House on the opposite side of the road.
He expressed thanks to all persons who assisted including Customs House, which opened its doors to store the computers and other office valuables, persons from Tiger Bay, the police and supporters. He said there was no water damage because of the layout of the office.
Office Manager of World Homes Guyana Inc, Jennifer Singh told this newspaper yesterday that they had suffered no losses. Their main concern was resettling as much of their office equipment and supplies had been moved to Customs House and they had to move them back to the office. There was also no water damage.
The building owned by SS De Freitas and which housed the offices of World Homes and Universal Airlines was north of the gutted Sacred Heart presbytery/parish hall. However, the Kirpalani Bond and a customs brokerage found behind both buildings were not spared by the conflagration.