Maracas bake and shark vendor puts on brave face after fire guts stall

Despite the shock of losing his businessplace, the director of Asha's Bake and Shark stall, director Mark Tulsie says he is not deterred.

Newsday understands the stall, on Maracas Beach, caught fire between 12 am and 2 am on Thursday.

Appliances from the Wrightson Road, San Juan and Santa Cruz fire stations were called and extinguished the fire. Officers said the stall was not close enough to other structures for the fire to spread.

Newsday visited on Thursday and spoke to Tulsie, who said someone at the scene told him about the fire at around 5 am.

Tulsie lives in Couva and said by the time he arrived the restaurant was totally destroyed.

He could not think of anything that could have caused the fire.

"Everything was running perfectly fine the day before when we were open. There were no leaks or any loose electrical wires to indicate this could happen.

"This was quite some shocking news to wake up to early in the morning.

"When we got here everything was already up in flames, so there was nothing to salvage."

Tulsie said he estimated the damage to be around $1 million, as he lost all ten of his industrial-strength freezers, stoves, ingredients and liquor.

Despite this he says he was fortunate to have insurance, and is prepared to reopen the business if the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts will rebuild it. The ministry owns the stalls.

Though the beach is still closed, the restaurant was open up to Wednesday and Tulsie said despite the significant slowdown in visitors, the stall has been doing relatively well.

Tulsie says the Asha's Bake and Shark brand has been around at Maracas for almost 30 years, although it moved to the beachfront from the car park in 2018 after an "upgrade" on the beach area. Between July and August that year, several vendors got keys for new booths from the Ministry of Tourism.

Fire officers visited the area on Thursday but said it was too early to determine the cause of the blaze.

Contacted for comment, Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Randall Mitchell said the remains of the structure would have to be torn down, but he was awaiting the outcome of the fire service's investigation.

"We haven't addressed that question – whether it will be rebuilt, or if we will rebuild it. We are awaiting the outcome of the investigation.

"Certainly, the investigation has to be complete and after those completed investigations the area will be cleared and made safe."