Tourists and community members helped to extinguish the fire that affected the El Paseo plaza located on 27 de Febrero Street in Las Terreras yesterday afternoon, August 16, 2023. The fire started in one of the restaurants there and quickly spread to 11 other businesses.
After more than an hour had passed and the fire was not extinguished and reinforcements had not arrived, tourists and locals formed a human chain to help put out the fire with buckets of water taken from the sea.
"A human chain was formed, and those people played a starring role at the time when we didn't have the units that arrived; we only had the local units, which are very old trucks with very little water capacity. While they were being supplied, people were helping, pumping water from the sea. Then units arrived from the entire province of Sánchez, Santa Bárbara, El Limón, Bajo Yuna, and Arroyo Barril," Eduardo Esteban Polanco, mayor of Las Terrenas, explained to Diario Libre.
He also reported that the fire was completely extinguished. It began shortly after 4:00 p.m. in a restaurant in the plaza and continued for several hours, affecting 12 businesses until it was brought under control by firefighters from that town and surrounding areas who responded to the incident.
According to eyewitnesses, the fire started in one of the restaurants, and the flames quickly spread to the roof area, which was constructed with a wooden structure and cane material, and was consumed by the fire, the origin of which is being investigated by the authorities.
Mayor Eduardo E. Polanco said they requested support from the National Institute of Sewerage and Drinking Water with tanker trucks and from other fire stations in surrounding areas.
He indicated that the fire started in the chimney of the Bar El Pirata , which had a thatched roof, and spread rapidly to the point of affecting 10 businesses located inside the plaza and two others adjacent to it, including the law office of Senator Pedro Catrain.
