Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Sparks from a bush fire are be­lieved to have caused a fire which de­stroyed South­ern Hard­ware ware­house in Pe­nal on Sat­ur­day night.How­ev­er, the own­er, Sav­it­ri Tahal, of SS Erin Road, Pe­nal, said no work­ers would be left job­less be­cause of the blaze.Tahal said she was at home around 7.20 pm on Sat­ur­day when she got news that fire was com­ing from the south­ern side of the build­ing at Sun­rees Road, Pe­nal.

Fire­fight­ers from the Siparia Fire Sta­tion re­spond­ed but the flames in­ten­si­fied. Em­ploy­ee Ma­hase Ram­cha­ran said the wa­ter ran short and the fire­men had to call for help from the Mon Re­pos Fire Head­quar­ters. Of­fi­cials of the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty lat­er re­spond­ed and opened up the wa­ter sup­ply, al­low­ing fire­fight­ers to get wa­ter from a near­by hy­drant.Ram­cha­ran said noth­ing was saved in the blaze: "Every­thing burned, even the nails melt­ed."

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Ram­cha­ran said he, his em­ploy­er David Tahal and an­oth­er work­er known as "Spock" were weld­ing the roof around mid­day.He said they sealed all the spots and locked up the ware­house about 4.30 pm. Ram­cha­ran said three hours lat­er, the fire start­ed in the ware­house. The cause of the fire is un­known but Ram­cha­ran said there was a pos­si­bil­i­ty that sparks from a bush fire could have spread to the ware­house. The build­ing was in­sured. Pe­nal po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

Mean­while, 20 peo­ple were left job­less af­ter fire de­stroyed a build­ing in Ch­agua­nas yes­ter­day.Po­lice said around 4.30 am, fire was seen com­ing from Daisy's Ex­clu­sive on Main Road, Ch­agua­nas. Fire of­fi­cials were alert­ed and a brigade from the Ch­agua­nas fire sta­tion re­spond­ed.Fire­fight­ers found sev­er­al bolts of cloth on the sec­ond floor alight. How­ev­er, they man­aged to con­tain the blaze to that sec­tion of the build­ing. No one was in­jured in the fire. In­ves­ti­ga­tors say the cause of the fire is yet to be de­ter­mined.

Own­er of the build­ing Daisy Ram­per­sad praised fire of­fi­cials for their quick re­sponse.Fire of­fi­cials are ex­pect­ed to re­turn to the store to­day.