Coronation Market fire victims say no help yet
Published:Thursday | December 15, 2022 | 12:30 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Two days after fire razed a section of Coronation Market, flattening at least 30 wooden stalls, some vendors say they have taken matters into their own hands to recover their livelihoods.
Having not heard word of any intervention from the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), some have resorted to spending their own funds to rebuild, this time using permanent, concrete structures to prevent future loss due to a similar tragedy.Those who cannot afford a cement stall have resorted to purchasing planks of wood to rebuild.
“Me nuh really see nobody come to me; me just a try do back my ting affa ma own,” said a male vendor. “We still haffi gwaan do what we have to do, because holiday a go down and we want money. Everybody want money and we cyah wait, so we have to try do something,” he explained.
Mel Simms, who has been selling in the market for 22 years, said that for now, those who have some savings are undertaking construction until they are informed of the Government’s intervention.
But they bemoaned that neither Local Government and Rural Development Minister Desmond McKenzie nor any representative from the KSAMC has visited them with a plan of action.
They say the municipal corporation had only taken note of the vendors names on Sunday.“Nobody we don’t see to represent we, not even to stand up ova we in the sun and say nothing to poor people,” said Shelly-Ann Briscoe, a vendor who spoke with The Gleaner on the day of the incident.
Briscoe, who says she has been vending in the area for some 27 years, recounts that she has lost over $400,000 worth of goods.
The Coronation Market is operated by the KSAMC. Questioned posed by The Gleaner to Chief Executive Officer of the KSAMC, Robert Hill, went unanswered.
Successive calls and WhatsApp messages have also remained unanswered.
Hill had previously informed The Gleaner on Sunday that Kingston Mayor Delroy Williams would issue a press statement, but no correspondence was issued up to press time that day.
Public relations officer at the Jamaica Fire Brigade, Emeleo Ebanks, told The Gleaner that he has yet to receive an official report and so could not provide any further update on the incident.