By Trudy Simpson, Freelance WriterTWENTY-EIGHT YEARS of history and memorabilia went up in flames yesterday when fire destroyed the building housing Sistren Theatre Collective at 20 Kensington Crescent, Kingston 5.
The fire, which began after 10.30 a.m. in the costume room at the back of the building, left only a shell of what was once a vibrant theatrical production house.
Investigation of the cause of the fire and the extent of the damage was still going on, Assistant Supt. John Morais of the York Park Fire Station said.
Sistren Theatre Collective worked with marginalised, vulnerable and other groups in inner-city communities and conduct seminars on issues such as empowerment, gender, development and HIV/AIDS. The group is known also for the publication Lion Heart Gyal, which detailed the lives of some lower socio-economic/ working class women who became actresses. Women's and other groups, as well as academics, would have been influenced by Sistren.
It took two firefighting teams from the York Park and Half-Way Tree fire stations to contain the blaze, which did not result in any casualty.
The fire, which got under control by 1:30 p.m., destroyed clothes, computers, other electrical equipment and the collective's archives.
It wreaked a heavy emotional toll on the building's caretaker, 71-year-old Winston Burke, who watched helplessly as the building burned.
"Everything bun up. Mi passport. Mi medicine dem bun up and mi have diabetes and hypertension. Every Christ t'ing bun up," Mr. Burke mourned.
'COLLECTIVE' GRIEF
There were tears in the eyes of Lillian Foster-Marshall, a member of the collective, and worry and grief on the face of Lana Finikin, co-ordinator at Sistren Theatre Collective. It was not clear whether the building, which had housed Sistren since 1986, was insured. Ms. Finikin said that was the last item on her mind yesterday.
"The valuables and archives weh inside that place, no insurance can replace that. For 28 years all that history down the drain. That's all I am thinking of right now," she said.
Mrs. Foster-Marshall, a collective member for 28 years, added, "I have been here from the beginning. A building can be replaced, but the archives? A rich history of our work cannot be replaced."
Some of the ills besetting the fire service surfaced again as persons watching the firefighting effort complained that the fire department took between one-and-a-half and two hours to get to the scene. Several people told The Gleaner that when the fire trucks arrived there were problems with the hose on one unit, which had three holes and eventually caught fire. There was also no fire hydrant nearby, they complained.
"How wi ah pay so much tax when... dem no have nutten fi work wid? We pay tax, dem suppose to have good service," a woman commented.
"And when Portia (Simpson Miller) talk out, dem ah gi har ah fight," another woman added.
Assistant Supt. Morais disagreed with reports of the fire service's late arrival and defective equipment, adding that the Jamaica Fire Brigade had responded in a timely manner and that its equipment was not defective.
