After almost 15 years of selling in the market, Sharon Fowler Hall could not stay home on Friday although all her goods were destroyed in a fire which razed a section of the Brown’s Town market on Tuesday, May 3.

“Mi still a try again. Wa nuh dead nuh dash weh,” Fowler Hall said while sharing that she borrowed $5,000 last Friday morning and was out trying to make a living again.

“A years mi in here so mi can’t stay home. So dis morning mi come and mi buy two dozen rag, two dozen dish towel and mi sit down in the rain and sell dem,” Fowler Hall vigourously stated.

“As a mother I can’t stay home knowing that I have children to care for. A trust mi trust the tarpaulin,” she said.

But starting over is not easy for the vendors who lost everything.

“We need some help,” Fowler Hall said, indicating that she lost approximately $400,000 worth of goods in the fire.

“Mi nuh have nothing else; what mi fi do? Mi a sell a market from 2001,” Fowler Hall said.

Fowler Hall was only one of several vendors displaced by the early morning fire at the market.

The vendors are desperately seeking assistance as they will not be compensated for their losses. As part of their contractual agreement, the vendors rent spaces from the St Ann Parish Council and plaid their goods at their own risk.

“It unfair because yuh register and pay market fees, and if nothing happens to yuh dem no business. I am a licensed vendor and I pay my market fees every week,” Fowler Hall said.

“All now mi nuh cry,” Fowler Hall said while admitting that that she is a Christian and therefore, strongly believes everything will work out.

Some vendors displaced by the fire now sell in an open area of the market, subjecting them to the weather conditions.

Councillor for the Brown’s Town Division Delroy Redway said the parish council is working assiduously to restore the area affected by the fire. Teams from the parish Council and the Ministry of Local Government have been assessing damage.

While the St Ann Council is not liable for the goods of vendors, Redway said he was willing to do what he could.

He encouraged vendors to submit their information to the council so that political representatives can seek assistance from the relevant bodies for them.

“I am willing to do what I can,” Redway called for individuals or organisations which can assist the vendors to do so.

“Suffering has no colour,” he said further stating that the situation should not be made a political football because the vendors are in need of help.