200 on breadline after Macoya fire Published: Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Dry fire hydrants are being blamed for hampering firefighters from extinguishing a multi-million dollar fire in the Trincity Industrial Estate on Sunday night which left almost 200 employees of a major office furniture manufacturer jobless.
The fire at MDC-UM Business and Home Furniture’s building at Consol Drive, Macoya, began around 9 pm and quickly spread as it was fed by the company’s stock, which was stored in over 100,000 square feet of warehouse space.
In a brief interview with media personnel on the scene of the fire, joint managing director of the company, Richard Farah, claimed dry hydrants surrounding the building prevented firefighters from containing the blaze before it spread to the entire building.
“When I arrived on the scene the whole building was not on fire but they (fire officers) could not stop it because there was no water,” Farah said.
He estimated the damage to the business and its stock at $80 million and said almost the same amount would be needed to rebuild.
While he was thankful that no employees were injured in the blaze, Farah said it would take some time to rebuild as over 85 per cent of the building was gutted.
“We have been one of the biggest office furniture manufacturers in the Caribbean for over 30 years. Right now, this is the worst time this could happen because we are involved in furnishing those big buildings in downtown Port-of-Spain,” Farah said as he suggested that the fire may affect his company’s work in retrofitting the Government Campus Plaza.
Although fire investigators were still on the scene up to late yesterday attempting to determine the cause of the fire, Farah suggested that vagrants who sometimes sleep at the back of the building at nights may have been responsible.
“It is not the cause of the fire that is the issue, there was just no water,” a visibly frustrated Farah exclaimed.
Contacted yesterday, communications manager at the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), Daniel Plenty, acknowledged the issue with the fire hydrants.
However, he noted several water trucks were dispatched to the fire to supplement the large contingent of fire tenders which responded to the scene.
“We (WASA) have a close working relationship with the Fire Services. Whenever there is a fire we always send water trucks to assist,” Plenty said.
He said the authority would be working with Fire Services Department, which is tasked to monitoring fire hydrants in the industrial estate, to have the issue quickly addressed.
Investigations are continuing.
http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2015-05- ... acoya-fire
