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Volume: 122 No. 111, May 2, 2025
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INFERNO •Victoria Court residents say spread could have been prevented •'No trucks available' police said as blaze hit Downtown buildings By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune News Editor rrolle@tribunemedia.net RESIDENTS of Victoria Court watched in horror yesterday as a fire they assumed would be quickly extinguished tore through their apartment building because New Providence appeared to lack enough functional fire trucks to stop it. What began as a blaze in an abandoned building adjacent to the complex exploded into a roaring inferno, damaging several Bay Street buildings and
A woman clutching a statue of Mary watches as the apartment building at Victoria Court burns as fire razed seeral building near Elizabeth Street. Photos: Dante Carrer/Tribune Staff
forcing panicked tenants to flee with whatever they could grab: passports, irreplaceable photos, clothes for their children. Some tenants tried to guide firefighters to where the water was needed most — a narrow gap between the abandoned building and Victoria Court — but they said their warnings were ignored. Natalia, one of the displaced residents, said she called the fire department repeatedly, begging them to send more units. She even walked to the fire crew and urged them to redirect their
efforts. Prominent businessman Craig Flowers, who owns four units in the building, said: “We are only here as an observer trying to ascertain what in the world went wrong why there were no fire vehicles.” Mr Flowers said an hour after the fire began, a police inspector told confused residents no trucks were available and that one was being sent from the airport. That truck eventually showed up, ran out of water, and left to refill. By then, flames had punched through the roof
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of the 29-unit structure, a 1950s-era building considered part of Bay Street’s architectural heritage. All the units were occupied. Families stood in the street watching their homes burn, stunned and helpless. “There was a lack of organisation,” Mr Flowers said, adding that firemen were on three different streets “shouting back and forth,” each demanding that the one truck come their way. Leah Major, another resident, said a neighbour SEE page TWO