Holidays up in flames

WESTERN BUREAU:

Twice in the last 15 years, the livelihoods of vendors who house their goods in the Montego Bay Shoes Market have been disrupted by major fires. The latest incident yesterday was the worst in the 30 years that many of the more than 200 vendors who operate from the facility have experienced.

This is their third major fire, coupled with a devastating flood that wreaked havoc in 2017 and break-ins, which occur constantly.

“This is a pretty major blow to the small-business community in Montego Bay, and this has happened just before Christmas,” Deputy Prime Minister Dr Horace Chang told The Gleaner on Sunday, hours after visiting the vendors who have lost millions, of dollars in goods.

According to Chang, the short-term plan is to look at some business-continuity solution, and in the medium term, solutions aimed at fixing the facility, which is mainly board and zinc, through rehabilitation.

As a result of the type of material in the market, the fire department warns that usually when there is a fire on the property, it spreads quickly, and on arrival there about 2:15 a.m., free burning was taking place.

“At least 60 per cent of the property was on fire. We used three pumpers until Trelawny arrived to assist us ... firefighting activities continued for about an hour before the fire was brought under control,” Fire Superintendent Roland Walters said.

Four hours later, the fire team was still spraying down the property with water.

“The fire load in this area is very heavy. Our initial investigation is showing that there are approximately 100 shops. All the shops are board, and the material is highly flammable, hence the extent of the damage,” he noted.

Rubbished accusations

The fire department is currently investigating the cause of the fire. Walters rubbished accusations by the vendors that there was no water in the trucks that arrived from the Montego Bay Fire Station next door to the market.

Three different groups, plus family, worked on containing the fire, said Walters. He admitted that water pressure is low in the area but indicated that that did not affect their efforts because they received assistance from the St James Municipal Corporation (SJMC).

The lands on which the market is located, between Creek Street and South Street, downtown Montego Bay, are owned by the SJMC.

Deputy Mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon, who visited the facility Sunday morning, said he was awaiting the investigation of the fire department, however, he urged the people affected to go ahead and submit their reports to the team. As soon as the investigations are completed, the St James Municipal Corporation will meet with all the people who have been affected by the fire.

“So that we can devise the most appropriate approach to addressing the situation,” he stated.

In the meantime, 64-year-old Imogene Salmon, who is fighting her third fire in the 30 years she has been operating in the market, is devastated. So is 65-year-old Monica Bennett, who lost all her goods in 2015 when her shop was burnt to the ground and again returned to ashes on Sunday morning.

“My second fire and my store has been robbed three times. I am in court right now with one of the robbers who was held, and now fire tek mi,” she lamented, hardly able to stand.

“It was a man who held me up when I got into the market. Right now mi weak. When I saw my shop, I felt like I want to go to the bathroom. Everything that me have burn up. All my investment, including bandana that I bought hoping to sell for Heroes Day,” she told The Gleaner.

Bennett said she left her shop at midnight Saturday, reached home by 12:30 a.m., and by 1:30 a.m., she received a call that the market was on fire.

Salmon said the last time she was flooded out in 2017, no one came to help them.

“Everything happen over yah, nobody nuh help we. Nutten. I don’t save a pin,” she cried.

Last Wednesday, she purchased $40,000 worth of goods in the Falmouth Market, she said, because she wanted to catch the holiday. The only thing she sold out of that fresh batch was one blouse. Revealing that things had not been going so well in the market, she said she bought a deep freeze three months ago and started selling drinks.

The deep freeze and several cases of drinks burnt beyond recognition. Many more shops would have been affected had it not been for a container that literally slowed the fire.

A man who goes by the name Scott said this was his second fire, and he was at a loss for words. Overcome by the destruction, he said there was a great deal of uncertainty regarding his future.

“My shop has been broken into three times, and I saw ashes when I reached the market this morning. Right now mi nuh know wah me a go do. Christmas deh right ‘round the corner. Bills have to pay, children to send to school.”

It is estimated that some 40 shops went up in flames.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com