By Makeida Antonio
Fire officials have provided more details about Monday’s raging fire which destroyed a store on Newgate Street.
Fire Chief Elvis Weaver disclosed that after the St John’s Fire Station received a call at 12pm about the inferno at Newgate House, firefighters responded and found that a two-storey concrete building, which housed three businesses, was ablaze.
According to Weaver, when the fire police arrived on the scene, Dollar Paradise, one of the stores on the ground floor, was completely engulfed by flames which subsequently took them approximately three hours to put out.
He explained that the store did not have a fire extinguisher.
“It was completely gutted. Water was used from the fire plants to extinguish it. It took almost three hours to extinguish the fire. The [goods in the store were] not insured from information we received,” he said.
Other businesses located inside Newgate House were not directly affected by the fire. While Exquisite Fashion experienced some water damage, Costume Island on the second floor did not sustain any damage.
“Another store, Exquisite Fashion, that was also on the lower floor, got water damage from fighting the fire that damaged that section of the building, but there was no fire [inside that store].
“There was an upstairs business too where they sell costumes; nothing happened to the upstairs,” Weaver added.