Livelihoods Lost In North Andros Fire As Stalls Destroyed

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NORTH ANDROS – Vendors in North Andros are counting their losses this morning after a fire destroyed multiple food stalls in North Andros, wiping out livelihoods and forcing police and volunteer firefighters to battle flames under some pretty difficult conditions.

Police alerted media to the blaze just before 8 o’clock this morning.

But Our News understands the fire broke out before sunrise.

Our Joshua Williams has the latest.

While many of us were preparing to return to work after the holiday weekend, residents in Nicholl’s Town, Andros, were battling a fire.

Flames broke out at the Seaview stalls early Tuesday morning, eventually destroying 5 wooden structures.

Police say no one was injured but the damage was significant.

Island Administrator Beverley Laramore tells Our News she received the call just after 5:30 Tuesday morning.

“The police and our fire volunteers responded in kind. After going out they are wooden structures, they were totally engulfed and because we had strong winds at that time the fire started to spread into the community of nichols town to some of the residents. And so the firefighters and the police officers had to try to control and save the homes.”

Drone footage shared on social media by Andros resident Brent McCartney, shows the extent of the destruction.

In his post, McCartney raised concerns about the island’s emergency response, claiming there’s no functioning fire truck on site.

Laramore confirms that while the island has two water skids, they were not as effective as officials had hoped under the conditions.

Police had earlier warned residents about heavy smoke in the area, making driving and breathing difficult.

But Laramore say conditions have since improved.

“Because we’ve had the strong winds the delay of having extra smoke plus it rained also helped us this morning as well. We also did have some brief showers and so the smoke is not prominent as it was earlier this morning.”

This latest fire adds to a growing list of similar incidents across the country.

Just last November, stalls at Arawak Cay, including popular spot Goldie’s, were destroyed by fire.

Earlier that same year, additional stalls at the site also went up in flames.

And in 2024, business owners in Exuma suffered a similar fate.

But Laramore says support for the affected vendors will depend on the outcome of the investigation.

“It is like any other family if it was a resident or a business. We try to support in whichever way. We’re waiting now to speak with the owners of those establishments in detail. There’s no type of funding available for fire. We still have to wait for the investigation to see what started the fire we know that no one was there at the time.”