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Thursday, June 3, 2010
Fire at Cable Beach straw market
By KEVA LIGHTBOURNE ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ kdl@nasguard.com
Almost nine years after the world famous Bay Street Straw Market went up in flames, scores of straw vendors suffered another blow as one of two single-story Cable Beach Straw market structures suffered a similar fate.
In the early morning hours of Saturday, the wooden structure, which housed approximately 36 stalls, was completely destroyed by fire.
Fire officials believe that an arsonist/s may have started the blaze, putting as much as 70 people out of work.
Police Press Liaison Officer Sergeant Chrislyn Skippings said police received word of the fire sometime around 1:40 a.m. on Saturday.
"Fire services responded with six engines and met the entire structure engulfed in flames. The fire was brought under control and eventually extinguished," Skippings said.
The vendors said the loss of the structure dealt a serious blow to their livelihood.
"It's a disaster, a devastating blow to us," said Sheniqua Johnson, who sold her Bahamian souvenir wares from a stall at the site for the past three years.
"I lost everything and now just the thought of having to start over is something I just can't comprehend right now. I had a lot of stuff in there and it was all lost in the fire. This is a great damage to a lot of people, so we are going to need some assistance because this is our livelihood," Johnson said.
She estimated her losses to be between $3,000 and $5,000 in goods, including T-shirts, jewelry, towels, caps, and straw bags - all Bahamian souvenirs.
Johnson, a mother of four said she her next step is to hopefully buy other wares and set up shop in the parking lot, next to the burnt down building.
"The only thing I can do is try and get some stuff back and see if I could set up here in the parking lot. That is the only thing I could do right now," Johnson said.
She was at a lost as to how she would break the news to her children, knowing that even before the fire it was a struggle to meet the necessities of everyday living.
"I don't know where the next dollar is coming from," said straw vendor Lisa Forbes. "Everything I had is just gone now. I don't know what I'm supposed to do and every day there are bills. Every time you turn around there is another bill so every day you have to be working. You have a day maybe two days off out of the week, but I can't stay home the whole week. I have children," said the straw vendor of thirty years.
"I need some immediate help," Forbes said, who estimated that she lost between $10,000 and $12,000 worth of goods.
"I just bought a stock of items. I just left them in the booth and took them out as I needed to replace them. I had souvenirs, T-shirts, jewelry. Everything, it's all gone," said Forbes, a mother of two.
"Sometimes you are just living from hand to mouth and it is just rough and it is going to be even harder now until something happens. I paid all of my bills because of what I did out here and I don't know what I am going to do now," she added.
Police say there was no damage to any of the nearby buildings. However, a car that was parked close to the area was extensively damaged by the heat of the flames.
The Cable Beach vendors are hoping that their wait for a new market would not be as long as their Bay Street counterparts, who have been working under a makeshift tent since the September 2001 fire disaster, which also destroyed the Ministry of Tourism building and caused extensive damage to the Pompey Museum.
"We need the government's help now," Forbes said.
Straw vendor Julia Storr also lost everything in the fire, including T-shirts, wraps, bags, dress, hats, key chains and souvenirs.
"It's big blow, but we will have to see what the government would do for us. But, right now it is heart wrenching. It's a big blow and I just hope we can recover from this," she said.
Tourism Minister Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace said he is awaiting a report before commenting on the way forward.
He acknowledged that the incident must be devastating to those people whose livelihood depends on selling their wares from the site.
Questioned as to whether the government would be willing to step in assist those vendors, the minister said the situation needs to be examined before recommendations are made.
Up to press time last night police had made no arrests with regard to the Cable Beach straw market blaze.
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SOUTH CAROLINA!
1/16/13 Emerald Princess (20 Days) 
Originally Posted by LuLu
) The straw market was located centrally and was really fun to visit...... the atmosphere was totally different back then. Nassau still had that island feel without all the commercialism.
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