00:00 While thousands were enjoying Guyana's Super Concert as part of the country's Cricket Carnival event taking place during the CPL season,
00:08 minutes away a fire broke out at the 195-room, six-storey Ramada Princess Hotel in Providence around 10.40pm.
00:19 Among the guests, at least 10 Trinidadians, six of them the winners of the TV6 Taj 92.3 RBL CPL promotion,
00:29 we spoke with one who recounted how he was able to escape the fiery fourth floor.
00:36 When we opened the door, we couldn't go anywhere. The only way out was through the glass.
00:42 I picked up the chair, I tried to break the glass, the chair was bouncing off.
00:47 The only thing I saw after that was my wife, two kids, and make sure my brother reached out to his wife and two kids.
00:54 So what I did was, I ran off, dropped the light, the stand-up light, and I just broke through the glass.
01:04 He said nothing was going to stop him from getting him and his brother to safety.
01:09 After I broke the glass, I started climbing down from floor to floor, dragging him with me.
01:15 I was nervous. I could not even make it, my hands had a triplet.
01:21 When we touched down, the hotel crew came and hugged us and said, "Fuck man, you did it yourself."
01:28 While these brothers were in the hotel, TV6's General Manager Richard Purcell was in the concert when he got news of the fire and rushed over.
01:38 Inside was completely waterlogged. Water was falling through the ceilings.
01:45 The floor was flooded, and of course I had to make my way up the steps.
01:52 And into my room, my door was broken down because my room was just opposite the room in which the fire started.
02:02 So our priority really was to ensure that the winners of our promotion, that they were safe and secure.
02:13 That they had accommodation, or if they wanted to go back home before the match, that they could.
02:21 And of course they didn't.
02:24 All hotels in and around the area were fully booked weeks in advance to the CPL Games, so arrangements were made to stay by friends and relatives.
02:34 Mr Purcell says everyone, although going through such a traumatic ordeal, opted to stay in Guyana for the finals between the Trinbago Knight Riders and the Guyana Amazon Warriors set to begin in under an hour.
02:48 According to regional news outlets, the Guyana Fire Services had to use a hydraulic system to rescue a number of people who were trapped on the sixth floor of the hotel.
03:00 One person had to be taken to hospital for smoke inhalation.
03:04 However, they say no serious injuries or casualties have been reported.
03:09 Both Guyana's President Irfan Ali and Vice President Bharat Jagdeo, Minister of Home Affairs, visited the scene last night.
03:19 Sindhi Raghuba Tika Singh, TV6 News.
03:23 For more information, visit www.fema.gov.au/covid19
