Vendors of Parika Market, who suffered millions of dollars in damages and had their entire livelihoods destroyed by fire last Friday, met with President Irfaan Ali yesterday at State House to discuss the way forward on the issue.
Much has not been officially disclosed on the discussion of the meeting but some vendors have said they were offered a sum of $300,000 dollars each for their losses. Several vendors complained to our publication that this is hardly enough to get them back on their feet from a fire that resulted from alleged negligence on the part of contractors rehabilitating the facility.
Guyana Fire Service has since said that at 15:14 hrs last Friday, the Fire Department was alerted to a fire at the market complex. It quickly dispatched to the scene. A combination of high winds and the densely populated market made extinguishing the flames nearly impossible. When this has been accomplished, most of the area had already been gutted.
The raging inferno which leveled the Parika Market is confirmed by investigators to have been started by residue from welding activities that were going on in the market at the time of the blaze. The Market was in its second phase of rehabilitation work, which was scheduled to be completed shortly.
