Lae

The group of Asian shops, popularly known as “12 Door”, had black smoke and flames billowing out from every crevice at around 10am yesterday.

Isaac Samson was working with three of his female colleagues and their boss, of Asian origin, when they heard noises coming from the top floor of the building.

Assuming that some form of maintenance was going on upstairs, the staff continued with what they were doing until another male boss called out to them to escape, saying there was a fire and it was already spreading. 

While there were no casualties, the Fire Service will establish the cause of the incident, pending preliminary investigations.

Acting superintendent, Dennis Hase, said they received a call at 5.21pm yesterday regarding the incident at Macdhui St, market area.

Despite heavy traffic, the fire team managed to make good time with the help of police.

“It was an old building so the fire just raced through it,” said acting supt Hase.

Fortunately, the owners of the rice wholesaler were on the opposite side of the fire.

The St John Ambulance has attended to six emergency cases so far since commencing operations in Lae last week.

St John will set up operations at the fire station with two fully-kitted ambulances.

This follows the signing of a three-way agreement with the Lae City Authority and Morobe Provincial Health Authority back in December 2020.

SJA acting commissioner and director ambulance service, Rigona Rita, thanked Lae’s fire service chief, acting superintendent, Dennis Hase, for his support in making the initiative happen.

A bus crew from Mt Hagen, Western Highlands, was reportedly killed during an attempted robbery at Kerowagi Market, West Taraka.

Lae’s bus service has stopped following his death, where a majority of PMV operators say they will only resume service once the suspects have been apprehended.

Metropolitan superintendent, Chris Kunyanban, said police held a mediation with them this morning, where they assured the group that police will get to the bottom of it.

Kunyanban stated that so far, four suspects have been identified, with units going out to pick one of them up.

The police and other agencies can only do their best in enforcing the COVID-19 measures.

At the end of the day, an individual is responsible for his or her own health.

Lae metropolitan superintendent, Chris Kunyanban, said police have been conducting COVID-19 awareness whenever they can but generally, people are not masking up when they are in public spaces.

“The challenge they are facing is that, a lot of people are very ignorant,” he stated. “That’s one of the challenge that we are facing in assisting the Health Department to do a bit of awareness.

This early start is to help the Provincial Health Authority (PHA) with its response to increasing cases of COVID-19.

The advanced deployment team comprises four ambulance officers.

The team is led by Chief Superintendent Anderson Poumb.

Poumb is joined by senior ambulance officer and Community Health Worker Bradley Zuki, and two new recruit ambulance officers.

Two more recruits are expected to join the Lae team this May.

The Loneliness singer and his partner were arrested in Lae by the NCD armed robbery squad for the illegal use, and misuse, of motor vehicle.

Lae metropolitan superintendent, Chris Kunyanban, said a complaint was filed in Port Moresby, which was followed up by detectives from Boroko, who managed to apprehend the duo on Tuesday, April 20^th.

 “What happened was, they hired a vehicle without paying,” stated Chief Supt Kunyanban. “The wife hired the vehicle and they were using it without paying the dues back to the company that they hired the vehicle from.”

Apart from households, senior manager, Martin Bigiglen, outlined that the University of Technology owes them K5 million and the Royal PNG Constabulary has an outstanding of around K4 million.

“The Government departments owe a lot of money,” he stated.

“They’re paying but slowly.”

He said though it is frustrating, they have taken residents’ needs into consideration.

Bigiglen said in Unitech’s case, they are considering the students’ welfare, while for members of the public, some have lost their jobs or have retired, hence have no way of settling their bills.

Of the seven bores located along the Unitech road, only four were working to supply the city until the issue yesterday evening, leaving only three functioning bores.

Water PNG senior manager, Martin Bigiglen, highlighted that production is very low and cannot meet the city’s demand. Though 1,300 kilolitres of water an hour is the required output, Water PNG is currently producing 630 kilolitres an hour.

“That’s half of the demand,” he stated.

“With that sort of load, you cannot meet city demand.

NKW has its own setup while an adjacent facility comes under the Morobe Provincial Health Authority.

Residents and health workers have been raising questions regarding the 11-Mile isolation facility within the NKW premises.  

The matter was brought to the fore on March 17^th when staff at the ANGAU Memorial Provincial Hospital held a forum at the ANGAU chapel and called for their own isolation facility.