The scene at Potter’s Cay Dock on Monday after Sunday night’s blaze. Photo: Racardo Thomas
By EARYEL BOWLEG
Tribune Staff Reporter
ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
A STRUCTURAL fire at Potter’s Cay on Sunday has left six stalls completely burned to the ground and two others with damage.
Two boats were also destroyed.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources Michael Pintard said officials are awaiting a report from Fire Services about the cause of the blaze.
Mr Pintard expressed his sympathy for the owners and workers of the properties destroyed in the blaze.
“We are going to meet at 11.30 this morning with all of the affected vendors and the staff at the ministry so that we can begin the assessment process of the extent of the damage,” he said yesterday.
“First of all, I want to express our great regret that this happened to vendors who’ve been going through an extremely difficult time. We’ve had a series of challenges over the last two years. We’ve had unfortunate incidences that have happened here at Potter’s Cay that affected the flow of traffic to support these vendors who support many families over the years and then we had the pandemic and now we have this catastrophic fire.
“Our hearts go out to the vendors and their families who rely on this business. It is incredible the intensity of the fire and you can see by the level of damage that it is going to take a while for a number of these vendors to rebound. What is also true is that the damage to stores, I believe about seven stores, will also affect other vendors and so we are going to move as quickly as we can to ensure that the rebuilding process commences.”
Asked about the government’s plans for rebuilding, Mr Pintard answered: “We’re going to take our time. We’ll do a careful assessment. We’ll hear from the vendors. I will have discussions with my colleagues. I don’t control the purse of The Bahamas…. So we will have a candid discussion and we will do our best to assist, but without question, we’ll assist.”
Potter’s Cay Dock Fish, Fruit, and Vegetables Vendors Association president Ormanique Bowe said six stalls were burned down while two of them were damaged, but can be repaired. When asked if there was any kind of insurance on the stalls, she answered some vendors had insurance while others do not.
According to police, officers received a report about a structural fire at the dock shortly before midnight on Sunday.
“On the units arrival at the scene, they met several wooden single-storey structures on the eastern side of the dock engulfed in flames,” a police crime report said. “They were able to extinguish the fire. However, several of the structures which housed restaurants and bars were destroyed. As a result of the fire, two boats that were docked at the rear of the structures were also destroyed.”
Leaston Bannister, a boat owner and captain, has a conch stand in the area. Mr Bannister, who lives on his boat, recalled helping that night.
“After I hear a boom and a pop, I was on my boat and I decide to look out. I see the eastern side of Potter’s Cay dock gush in flames. I had come ashore to assist some people in their boats. So I had to help pull them away from the fire, anchor them, and helped tie them behind my boat. You had two boats which caught (fire). They burned to the waterline and they would’ve sunk.
“The fire engine took a long while. When they came, there wasn’t no water at first. They had to go find hydrants….. You had two persons that was actually in the stall when the fire would’ve started and they got out,” he said.
Mr Bannister clarified that these people were not trapped in the fire.
Bahamas Dock and Allied Vendors Association President Wendi Constantine said the fire started at about 10pm. She was there when her stall, Moby Dick Restaurant and Bar, was burning down.
“It’s devastating to see what you’ve put into something.... your life savings. It’s just the memories and now you have staff unemployed. So it’s an overwhelming feeling right now in this time,” she said.
“My heart goes to all of the vendors here on Potter’s Cay dock that was affected by the fire and their staff and their families.”
Blue Wave owner Leslie Rolle was at the charred scene examining the damage yesterday morning. He said people are speculating a lightning strike during Sunday’s thunderstorm caused the fire.
He said he got a call after 11pm about the fire and rushed to the site.
“Now I’m out of work,” he said, when asked how he felt about the fire. “I gotta stay strong.”
Before this fire, his business was just starting to pick up a little in the pandemic. As for the meeting with the minister, he was hoping to hear that the ministry will offer some help. The owner estimated it would cost $120,000 alone to rebuild his stall.
Blue Wave had been in operation for 30 years.
Comments
FreeUs242 3 years ago
If the government really cares, they can help donate new stalls for those ppl. I remembered back then when it was big argument of trying to revamp that dock for guess only and the vendors was not having it. A new look would be nice if the vendors are not ban from continuing their services.
realitycheck242 3 years ago
This is another opportunity to get rid of all the shanty structures at potters cay and build standardize stone stalls with proper running water and toilets. These stall can then be insured. The present eye sore that presently exist does present a good view for the many guest who use the Bridge every day. . If PGW can be upgraded so should potters cay.
tribanon 3 years ago
The so called 'vendors' do not own the land that these fired destroyed unsanitary and unsafe shanty shacks were built on. Why doesn't The Tribune's staff reporter investigate who in fact does own the land and who, if anyone, was collecting any rent from the vendors. Like so many of the straw 'stall' vendors downtown, most of these food & beer 'stall' vendors get away with paying no license fees, no rents, not being subject to health and safety inspections, no insurance requirements of any kind, etc., etc. This is because of the pervasive corruption that exists within our government departments and agencies that is supported by the likes of Dumbo Pintard.
Dumbo Pintard in the run up to a national election has wasted no time in suggesting government may have an obligation to put these vendors back in business. Dumbo Pintard apparently believes the rest of us hardworking taxpayers (you and me) should foot the bill for building new stalls for these vendors to get back in business. At the same time he, and of course Minnis, know full well that nothing (nadda) of any consequence will ever flow back into the public treasury to help defray the higher taxes and fees the rest of us will be forced to pay for putting these unscrupulous rent and tax dodgers back in business.
On a final note, just about anyone who has driven past these shanty shacks will tell you they were a terrible menace to traffic with drunks and bums wandering all over the place and others criss-crossing the narrow roadway in a most unsafe and dangerous way. There's simply not enough space to accommodate such vendor-type structures being rebuilt on the same site without (yet again) violating numerous building and safety codes.
FreeUs242 3 years ago
All of them are not immigrants. Drunk will be everywhere because they are mostly Bahamians living on the streets. They too have rights to go wherever as a regular citizen. It's so easy to beat down on the poor but the illegal millionaire mafias can live comfortably in the Bahamas running joint operations with government and overseas partners, double standards for the rich and poor in the Bahamas.
tribanon 3 years ago
Who said they are all immigrants? No matter who they are, they should not be above the law, even if our corrupt politicians for political gain encourage them to behave as such.
FreeUs242 3 years ago
How do drugs, sex trafficking, guns coming into the country, from the rich ppl that employs poorer ppl to do their dirty works. They still don't get arrested for running illegal operations because they pay the GOVERNMENT off. They torture the poor more than the rich here.
FreeUs242 3 years ago
The churches do more feeding programs for the drunk individuals than GOVERNMENT.
FreeUs242 3 years ago
Out cable beach look like a dream compared to the lower class bahamian communities. The GOVERNMENT doesn't give a damn about the poor citizens or the poor at all. Places like Kemp Road will never have good roads like out west. If it does not cater to GOV, they ain't checking to upgrade.
ThisIsOurs 3 years ago
Truly sad that persons who may have been getting back on their feet are facing another setback. But in terms of forward thinking and planning, officials can see clearly what a huge fire hazard (hazard in general), those structures are. similarly for shanty towns.
Stop allowing these ramshackle disorganized structures to pop up all over the place. If they are not careful in 10 years the entire strip from arawak cay to the point will look like a shanty town. arawak cay is hideous. and we hold it up like a crown jewel. There is a native market in barbados where the locals hang out, cant remember the name. same concept. each "stall" is a uniform wooden structure neatlly constructured and painted in some bright pastel colour evenly spaced out along the compound. Why cant we do something organized and aesthetically beautiful for once? Why do we cling on to garbage like its the best thing ever?"Junkanoo is the greatest show on earth" because we say so. It isn't. It's disorganized the costumes are rushed and never finished.call it what is is and fix it.
tribanon 3 years ago
Couldn't agree more.
John 3 years ago
‘ The Rosewood massacre was a racially motivated massacre of black people and destruction of a black town that took place during the first week of January 1923 in rural Levy County, Florida. At least six black people and two white people were killed, though eyewitness accounts suggested a higher death toll of 27 to 150. The town of Rosewood was destroyed in what contemporary news reports characterized as a race riot. Florida had an especially high number of lynchings of black men in the years before the massacre,[2] including a well-publicized incident in December 1922.’
. The comments above seem to suggest...
John 3 years ago
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