HGP Nightly News – “Response time matters. It will always matter.” That warning, delivered just last week by Home Affairs Minister Oneidge Walrond at the Guyana Fire Service Annual Senior Officers’ Conference, now hangs heavily over an Easter Monday fire in Sophia, where a family says more than an hour passed before firefighting efforts began. By the time the blaze was brought under control, the family’s home and business, S and L Supermarket at 563 ‘D’ Field Sophia, had been destroyed, leaving behind an estimated $60 million in losses and fresh concern over emergency readiness.
According to relatives and residents, the fire spread rapidly, forcing nearby neighbours to act before firefighters arrived. Charlene Lindie, one of the proprietors, said “everybody start running with buckets… everybody started putting buckets of water on the fire,” as residents formed an impromptu bucket brigade in a desperate attempt to contain the flames. In the middle of the chaos, she said she also rushed to cut the power, explaining, “I run in back the house to turn off the main switch.”
All of the occupants managed to escape, including Lindie’s mother, who she said is a stroke patient. “Everybody who occupied the building has been accounted for,” Lindie said, adding, “My mother have stroke… so I try to get her out first.” But while lives were spared, the financial devastation was immense. Lindie said the family lost about $60 million, and also reported that a large amount of cash on the premises was destroyed in the fire.
The family’s account now throws a sharp spotlight on the very issue Walrond addressed days earlier, when she said the fire service should not be judged only by how fast it responds, but also by how effectively it prevents emergencies. Even so, she made it clear that response time remains critical. For the Sophia family, that point is no longer theoretical. Lindie claimed more than an hour passed before firefighting efforts began, and further claimed that when three fire tenders arrived, they initially had no water to combat the blaze.
As authorities are expected to investigate both the cause of the fire and the concerns being raised by the family, the Sophia blaze has become a painful real-life test of the issues discussed at last week’s conference. While officials speak of prevention, preparedness and stronger systems, this family is left to rebuild after watching both their home and livelihood go up in flames.
