Jamaica: Tragic fire strikes Ray Ray Market once again, vendors suffer huge losses

Jamaica: The popular Ray Ray market in downtown Kingston, Jamaica, was once again engulfed in a massive fire, which destroyed several stalls of local vendors. The incident took place on Tuesday morning, and the vendors expressed their sadness over the losses. 

The market is known for being engulfed in fire every year as the last one was reported in January 2023 before which there was one in February 2022 preceded by one in June 2020 and before that in April 2019. 

Vendors at the market have suffered another round of losses after the market was again gutted by fire. Following last year’s fire, a vendor noted that it was the 16th time that she was affected by a fire at a popular market in Jamaica. 

According to the information, this time, the blaze began shortly after 2 and in a matter of few minutes, the fire razed through several stalls at the location. 

One of the sources said that fire fighters carried out cooling down operations at the facility for several hours, with investigations anticipated to take place to determine the exact cause of the tragic fire. 

It is being reported that all the stalls and their contents were completely destroyed, which affected the livelihood of vendors to a great extent. 

Superintendent for the Kingston & St Andrew division of the Jamaica Fire Brigade, Joshua Davis said that three units were sent to tackle the blaze along with a huge water tanker and the location had already completely engulfed when firefighters arrived at the scene. 

It is to be noted that the Ray Ray Market is an almost yearly challenge for the firefighters in Jamaica who have been dispatched to the location every year to extinguish a huge fire. 

Following the fire, several footage of the incident went viral on social media, showing the huge flames coming out of the place, which left everything in ashes. 

Meanwhile, the citizens also took to Facebook to express their concerns over the fire, with several calling it an ‘annual event‘. 

“We need to know who is benefiting from this. Year in and year out, they always light this place. Someone is benefiting why they are consistently doing it,” wrote Smokie Jon, while another user claimed, “The PNP councilor done its because he wants to build a new market to impress the people who vote him in. Watch and see if my wrong politics mess up everything.”