By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

THE inferno that levelled six Arawak Cay restaurants on Sunday has ripped open long-standing tensions over how the Fish Fry is run, highlighting vendors' frustration with cramped wooden structures, lax oversight, and years of stalled reform.

Vince ‘Curly’ McDonald, owner of Curly’s Restaurant & Bar, called the blaze unfortunate but said it forces vendors and officials to “reflect and refocus” on the future of the strip and be “intentional on where we’re going and how we’re going to get there.”

He said the current setup is unsustainable.

“We’re piling on top of each other,” he said. “It’s chaos out there. I mean, everything’s close, claustrophobic, clustered, and all is wood. And you’re not sure the proper training to ensure something like this doesn’t happen in terms of fire drills and protocols for the environment.”

On the question of insuring Fish Fry buildings, he said insurers “won’t touch them.”

He said the government and vendors have grown “comfortable in the old habitual stuff that we’re used to,” creating a resistance to change. He said he has seen a disconnect and animosity between vendors and legislators since opening his restaurant 14 years ago.

“We have to have some kind of direction,” he said, adding that a strong oversight committee of vendors and policymakers is needed to enforce standards.

He also dismissed the Arawak Cay Conch, Fish, Vegetable and Food Vendors Association as inactive. “From I been there I had one election and they keep saying what they gonna do and nothing is being done,” he said.

For his part, ACVA president Rodney Russell said the immediate focus should be on the more than 60 people he believes have been thrust into hardship at the start of the Christmas season.

“We talk about building codes, and we talk about shantytown looks and we have not been compassionate about the families being impacted,” he said, adding that there’s been no “easement”. “Some of those families don’t know where to look in order to come to this Christmas season that we’re coming to.”

Mr Russell said Arawak Cay’s buildings met Ministry of Works standards when constructed, but said enforcement loosened over the years. He claimed the Fish Fry went “awry” after 2002 due to “friends and lovers” influencing approvals.

He accused some of using connections to erect structures outside the original rules: “You might see buildings going up in Arawak Cay and you may question it, because these persons now have family and friends who can interfere,” he said.

He acknowledged the closeness of the wooden structures but insisted it played no role in Sunday’s destruction. “Doesn’t matter how much money you spend in building codes, fire is fire,” he said. “Fire don’t worry about building codes. We had followed the law and it has nothing to do with building codes, it had something to do with an accident. There is no one to blame other than the fire.”