Hope torched in new market fire

As Marcia Taylor examined the charred ruins of her dreams, she sank into spiralling despondency as she pondered her next move.

The 55-year-old is one of 66 vendors in the Oxford Mall Arcade whose goods, equipment, furniture, and livelihood went up in flames on Sunday morning. The blaze started around 4:30.

Taylor said that when she first started working at the market six years ago, she only had $700, but bit by bit, expanded her shop to include a bar, haberdashery, and toy shop.

“I sold floor mats, plastic plates, every little thing, and over that shop deh a toys, pure toys, and that one in there was liquor and drinks, and I fry fish. Everything bun up. Everything bun up. Mi have nothing,” she said as she struggled to hold back tears.

The inferno, which is believed to be the work of the arsonists, quickly engulfed a large section of the market.

Vendors theorise that a gang feud might have triggered the suspected arson. Market vendors have suffered at the hands of extortionists for decades and turf wars sometimes erupt between contending factions.

Sunday’s disaster was another harrowing episode of nightmarish fires that consume Jamaica’s markets with freakish regularity, particularly in the downtown Kingston commercial district.

Five days earlier, fire ripped through the Ray Ray Market some time after 7 p.m.

Despite Taylor’s best efforts, she was only able to save the clothes on her back at Oxford Mall Arcade on Sunday.

“I draw out the two fridge, but mi had to run lef the two fridge ‘cause the fire was more than me. I can’t go home lef’ the shop for the sake of thieves ... .”

“Everything just gone. I don’t where to go to, to beg a next dollar to start … . The next step is for me to go down a seaside and jump off because mi nuh like hungry,” she said, her voice heavy with despair.

Bar operator Mark Williams said that this was his first fire disaster. The proceeds from his bar, which is his sole source of income, were used to take care of his grandchildren.

He reached the market about 5 o’clock – in time to see the furious flames licking his property as police and others scrambled to help.

While sweeping rubble from his bar’s countertop, he was philosophical and harboured a sliver of optimism amid the gloom.

“It was really intense, you know, but as they say, mi nah give up hope,” Williams told The Gleaner.

For some vendors, the destruction of the Oxford Mall Arcade was a twin tragedy.

One higgler, whose possessions had already been destroyed by the Ray Ray Market fire, told The Gleaner that she lost goods stored at the arcade in Sunday’s blaze.

“Mi get double dose. See my stall deh,” said the vendor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, while pointing to the frame of blackened wood and zinc.

“Mi pay a man to lick it down already and see my storeroom where I store my barrel dem. It gone flat with three barrels.”

Christopher Robinson, a vendor who lost an estimated $400,000 worth of appliances, furniture, and meat, believes that arsonists are to blame.

“You see how the fire set? It is like dem gas di place and throw bottle bomb. When I came out, I could do nothing ... ,” he said.

“You see when the fire light, a run the fire a run a go down so. It look like dem just gas the whole place, and from when you light one part, fire gone everywhere,” he added.

Kerry-Gayle Forbes, acting public relations officer of the Jamaica Fire Brigade, described markets as particularly vulnerable to fire since most are open spaces that are easily accessible with various combustible materials.

Even though there are several working hydrants in the downtown district, water pressure affects the ability of firefighters to extinguish blazes quickly.

“... As with most cases, you have the factor of low pressure … but because of the viciousness of the fire, we have to send our water tender to assist with boosting the amount of water,” Forbes said.

District Officer Francisco Bennett of the York Park Fire Station said that seven units drawn from Kingston, St Andrew, and St Catherine fought the blaze. The cause and estimate of damage are yet to be determined.

Robinson believes that security arrangements around the market need to be beefed up round the clock. Like other vendors, he is fearful of clashes between gangsters in the capital.

“A nuh normal something a gwaan. Dem and people have war. Dem can’t ketch who dem want fi kill, so dem just destroy everybody,” he said.

Commanding Officer of the Kingston Western Police Division, Senior Superintendent Michael Phipps, said that the investigation is at a preliminary stage but disclosed that at least one person of interest had been identified.

“Based on some information that we have, it may have been the work of arsonists. So far, we have identified one man, who goes by the alias ‘Peppa’, from a Matthews Lane address, and we are treating him at this time as a person of interest,” Phipps said.

No motive has been established for the attack.