A massive fire yesterday razed sections of the Pearnel Charles Arcade in downtown Kingston, destroying millions of dollars of goods belonging to more than 100 informal commercial importers (ICIs), many of whom have called the market their workplace for more than a decade.

It required 24 firemen and four units – two from the York Park Fire Station and one each from the Rollington Town and Half-Way-Tree stations to smother the flames that began in the wee hours of the morning and blazed for almost five hours.

Yesterday, there were speculations among the vendors that the fire may have been the result of an electrical short, but that information was however, not confirmed up to late yesterday evening.

District Officer Charles Burke of the York Park Fire Station said his team responded to the fire only minutes after they received the call at 4:39 am.

“We arrived on the scene at approximately 4:51 (am) and when we arrived parts of the building was totally engulfed, which forced us to immediately seek help to back up our two units,” Burke told the Observer.

Yesterday, the capital’s mayor and Jamaica Labour Party councillor for the Tivoli Gardens West Kingston Division, Desmond McKenzie, said a total of 179 stalls were destroyed in the fire.

“It (the fire) began at the southern end of the arcade and took in blocks E and D,” he said.

The arcade is sectioned in blocks from ‘A’ to ‘R’, but according to the vendors, the affected blocks were those which contained the most expensive wares.

“Those blocks (E and D) housed the vendors who sold the most expensive items,” said Ann Kelly, a vendor of almost 20 years, who lost all her appliances in the blaze.

According to Kelly, she relied on “selling” to send her four children to school. But better yet, it also provided for her a home of her own.

“I just have to try and pick up the pieces. wherever I can,” she muttered.

“This is the third time I have been through this,” Kelly said, referring to two earlier blazes at the arcade, including one in 1990 which destroyed 126 stalls.

Another fire happened three years prior to yesterday’s.

The grief on the faces of other vendors told a story.

“I don’t know when I will begin selling again because it is difficult to ‘start back life’ at 48,” said a female vendor, whose goods also went up in the smoke.

“I have been selling here for more than 20 years and this is the third time this is happening to me,” added another woman who was identified only as “Puncy”.

“Puncy” is said to be a retailer of high-end European-style clothing. But yesterday her much revered wares were reduced to ash.

At 11:00 am yesterday, approximately seven hours after the blaze, firemen were still pouring water on the building. Outside, empty shoe boxes and other debris from the fire littered the sidewalk. Vendors gathered in groups and chatted among themselves – apparently to calm their anxieties.

“Most of us here (on the sidewalk) saved nothing,” said one vendor who identified himself as “Scarry”.

“By the time I got the news and ran to the scene everything was one fire,” he lamented.

Several police officers in blue denim kept potential looters at bay.

-martina@jamaicaobserever.com