Overheated motor results in fire that destroyed four buildings in Non Pareil
The Non Pariel house that was destroyed by the fire
Kaieteur News – An overloaded sponge chipping machine, which had been left plugged in for an extended period of time resulted in the fire that destroyed four buildings at Lot 24, Block 12 Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara (ECD) on Wednesday.
The Guyana Fire Service (GFS) reported that the machine’s motor overheated, igniting nearby combustible materials and eventually engulfing the entire building at the Non Pareil home, which spread to three other buildings.
Upon receiving an emergency call, at 09:42hrs, the GFS dispatched several water tenders and firefighters at the scene. “Water Tenders #105 and #106, Water Carrier #16, and Ambulance #23, along with their respective crews, were immediately dispatched to the scene. The water tenders arrived at 09:43hrs, carrying a total of 9,274 liters of water. Firefighters began their operations at 09:44hrs,” GFS reported on its Facebook page.
Notably, the affected structure was a single-storey wooden and concrete building, owned by 48-year-old Mohammed Azad Ali, who lived there with three others. As a result of the fire, which completely destroyed the building and its content, four occupants were left homeless.
Kaieteur News reported that the owner estimated his losses to be $50 million. Furthermore, due to the intensity of the fire, four other buildings were also impacted. A storage bond located at Lot 25 Block 12, Non Pareil, was destroyed due to the radiated heat from the building of origin.
The external walls, a washing machine, a freezer, two tanks and a quantity of guttering and pipes of three neighbouring buildings, located at Lots 22, 26, and 27 Block 12, Non Pareil, suffered varying degrees of damage, also from the radiated heat.
Firefighters initially used two jets from Water Carrier #16’s tank supply, then deployed two more jets from Light Pump #126, relayed through Water Tender #106, to fully extinguish the fire.
