Adding to the loss of jobs, investment, income, and the like after the Sharon’s Mall went up in flames, lawyers who occupied the building and their clients are now facing a difficult task ahead.
Important original documents, including wills, were all burnt in the fire, leaving lawyers now to find a way to remedy the situation.
On Wednesday, a fire ripped through the building on Charlotte and King Streets, after little pockets of smoke were seen coming from the building just after 5 PM.
With firefighters telling most of the tenants that they had it under control, those who were still at the building at the closing hours were told to just exit the building.
Two hours later the smoke which was earlier seen in small pockets quickly revealed a large fire burning everything in its path.
When the fire was controlled just after 9 PM-ing, nothing was saved, as the properties of the tenant were either destroyed by fire or by water.
From the standpoint of lawyers important documents such as original wills being held for hundreds of clients leaving close to 15 lawyers at a disadvantage going ahead with the matter.
“We have lost everything in the building; there is really nothing left apart from of course the office equipment and the furniture.
“The more important things are the documents, especially original documents that are irreplaceable to clients.
“Those are some things that people will not be able to replace such as original wills copies of which may not have been lodged with the registry.
“So, even though it’s a big loss financially in terms of office equipment the clients’ documents are most important to me at this time,” one lawyer who occupied the Sharon’s Mall said.
The lawyer maintained that it would be a tedious task to get back all of the documents and to start over.
“I’m trying to see what can be reconstructed from the registry because there would be records of things that were filed already.
“Of course, things that were not filed I hope that the authorities and the institutions such as the post office where we get a birth certificate, get married certificate and so on, that they will facilitate us in a timely manner.
“You don’t have to go through the process of weeks and months that it would usually take to get certain documents back,” the lawyer added.
And when it comes to the court, some Lawyers who are affected by fire would seek to ask the court for an extension of time to file their submissions and by extension have asked also that their clients be lenient with them knowing the present circumstances.
In addition to the lawyers losing most of their documents, staff, and equipment hundreds of other workers remain out of the job. Hundreds of millions of dollars of items were lost in the Wednesday night fire.
This had led to an investigation by the Guyana Fire Service and the Guyana Police Force to ascertain what may have caused the fire and how in fact in the future such fires could be averted.
Owners of apartments in the building and eyewitnesses remain critical of the fire service action in battling the fire.
Some have indicated that much could have been done to prevent what happened.
Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn has also said that in the future firefighters must have to have a greater understanding of the wiring of buildings since this was a challenge for firefighters at Sharon’s.
Benn added that the building must follow safety protocols for fires by adding working sprinklers and fire extinguishers.
The Guyana Fire Service has so far denied any wrongdoing by their men. They said that they would have done whatever they could to save the building.
