MONTEGO BAY, St James — There has been yet another fire at the Montego Bay Shoe Arcade, popularly known as the Old Shoe Market. Three shops were gutted early Wednesday morning, nearly a year after several others were destroyed by another blaze.

“Me want to know if it is an annual thing. Every year we have to look out for fire here or what?” questioned a vendor who gave his name as Pow Pow.

His shop was next to one that was devastated by the early morning blaze and he said he suffered more than $2 million from water damage and looting.

“It’s crazy. A whole heap a damage. It is not the first, second or third time fire come here and destroy the things them. The last time it was just next door to me. This time a right next door again. Always a lose,” Pow Pow fumed.

Minutes into Wednesday morning, firefighters were called to put out the blaze. They prevented it from spreading to other shops, but not before it wreaked damage on appliances, shoes and clothing items inside three structures, leaving millions of dollars in losses in its wake.

Mayor of Montego Bay and chairman of the St James Municipal Corporation Councillor Richard Vernon, who visited the arcade a few hours after the fire, said the fire department has a theory of what caused the blaze.

“Based on the initial investigation, they are identifying several breaches, electrical breaches, and they are suggesting that that may have caused the fire,” Vernon said.

He added that during his visit to the arcade he saw evidence of destruction to three shops, one of which was occupied by more than one vendor.

“I understand that the one with double occupancy, based on the nature of its operation, there are several persons who were attached to that shop. When we looked at the situation, we realised that one shop had about five large refrigerators and an AC [air conditioning] unit operating in that particular section of the shop. And I was also advised that the person operated it as a storage area for many persons who ply their wares along the street,” Vernon noted.

The mayor said the latest fire comes as plans are in place for redevelopment of the facility. He said the municipal corporation is currently working on securing the funding needed and choosing one of two proposed designs.

“We are meeting with a team from Urban Development Corporation later this week, and also the Member of Parliament and the deputy prime minister [Horace Chang], so we can further the dialogue pertaining to this particular space in Montego Bay. It needs upgrading. It cannot continue as is. It is unregulated, from electrical works to the occupancy of the shops to everything here,” said Vernon.

“We need to move swiftly. We have been trying. We have met with the persons here on several occasions, and we have had discussions to the effect that we agree on where we should go forward in terms of direction,” he added.

The mayor appealed to vendors for patience as the municipal corporation and stakeholders seek to redevelop the facility.

“We cannot produce a state-of-the-art market that is conducive to their business, to their livelihood and to the development of Montego Bay overnight. We have to ensure that we are very considerate in the planning, very inclusive, and that we do it in such a way where we don’t need to talk about rebuilding the market 10 years from now. So that takes time, and I’m asking that persons be patient with the process as we move to redevelop the space and to help them to realise a better way of life,” he implored.