By Lynford Simpson,
Staff Reporter
ANOTHER ILLEGAL "gas station" in a residential area went up in flames yesterday, the second such in just over two months, causing damage estimated at millions of dollars.
The fire at 2 Elspeth Avenue, off Hagley Park Road in the Corporate Area, destroyed a 10-room dwelling, three motor vehicles, including two pick-up trucks, and more than forty 55-gallon drums used to store petrol.
An initial estimate of the damage has been put at $30 million.
Three firemen who were fighting the blaze, which began shortly after 2 p.m. were injured when some of the drums exploded. They were treated at hospital.
Two dogs, one still chained to a tree in the yard and one trapped under a table in the house, perished in the inferno but two pigs in a nearby pen were saved.
The owner of the house was identified only as a "Mr. Scott" and was said to have been on the premises when the fire broke out. " But him run through the back...," an angry resident said. However it could not be determined how many other people lived at the house or exactly how the fire started.
Residents of the area, who said they heard several loud explosions and went to investigate, came upon huge clouds of smoke coming from the house.
"I heard the drums bursting and I run through a yard and by the time I reach round there I heard about five more bursts. But you could see the fire from all the way round Woodpecker Avenue," Janet, a resident, said.
District Officer Cardiff Lindo, of the Trench Town fire station, told The Gleaner the residents attempted to put out the blaze themselves before a series of explosions drove them off.
Five pairs of slippers at the entrance to the premises bore testimony to the speed with which the occupants of the house left the scene.
The fire was eventually put out by three crews from the York Park, Trench Town and Half-way Tree fire stations. Cooling down operations were completed by 5 p.m. when the crowd, which was kept at bay by a strong detachment of police, started to converge on the yard. The frames of two pick-up trucks, a beige Ranger and Ford bearing registration plates 8179DM and 3115BH were a stark reminder of the ferocity of the fire.
In January, a large fire at an illegal gas depot at 32A Seventh Street, Greenwich Town, Kingston, left at least 45 people homeless. Deputy Supt. Newton Amos said then that the police had for years been trying to close that operation.
It was reported yesterday that the Elspeth Road "gas station" had been in operation for more than 10 years. However it could not be determined how the fire started.
Residents, including those living next door to the illegal operation, were reluctant to speak. "Mi nuh know nutten. Mi nuh inna di informer business," one man said.
Shortly after the January fire, gasolene retailers warned that it could be replicated throughout the Corporate Area and St. Catherine because of the proliferation of similar illegal "gasolene stations."
The densely populated residential communities of Richmond Park, Beechwood Avenue and Slipdock Road, East Kingston were identified as areas where the illegal sale of petroleum products take place daily. The Jamaica Gasolene Retailers' Association has repeatedly called on the Government to take steps to eliminate the illegal gas trade. The association has been pushing for legislation that would outlaw these "gas depots".
Additional reporting by Glenda Anderson.
