HGP Nightly News – A routine cleanup at a furniture bond on the East Coast of Demerara spiralled into chaos on Wednesday afternoon, after a small attempt to deal with a bee nest allegedly triggered a fast-moving fire that wiped out millions of dollars in stock at the High-way 401 Furniture Store in Mon Repos.
Thick black smoke could be seen rising over the community shortly after 1:00 p.m., as flames tore through the two-storey storage bond, reducing furniture and fittings to ash in a matter of minutes. What began as a post-holiday cleaning exercise quickly turned into a devastating blaze.
Owner Nazim Khan, who has operated the business since 2019, said employees were at the bond carrying out routine cleaning when they came across a bee nest. In an effort to remove it, workers allegedly tried to smoke the nest out, but nearby dry tree branches caught fire. The flames, Khan said, spread almost instantly.
“They were trying to smoke it out and didn’t realise the branches were dry,” Khan explained, noting that once the fire started, it grew out of control within seconds.
The situation was made worse by the nature of the inventory stored inside. Furniture materials, highly combustible by design, fuelled the blaze as it raced through the bond. Firefighters responded and worked to contain the inferno, but the intensity of the fire left little that could be saved.
Khan’s daughter, Saudia Khan, pointed out an unsettling coincidence: the same building had reportedly been destroyed by fire nearly two decades ago, under a previous owner, in an incident believed to have been caused by an electrical fault.
While an exact estimate of the losses has not yet been calculated, Khan said the damage is expected to run into the millions. He revealed that a container of furniture stock had been offloaded into the bond just days before the fire, significantly increasing the scale of the destruction.
Investigations into the incident are ongoing, as the business now faces the costly task of rebuilding in the aftermath of a fire that erupted with shocking speed from what appeared to be an ordinary afternoon chore.
