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\u00a0 A fire of unknown cause broke out Wednesday night at the defunct Monte Carlo Club in front of Hopwood Junior High School in Chalan Piao.<\/p>\n\u00a0 A fire of unknown cause broke out Wednesday night at the defunct Monte Carlo Club in front of Hopwood Junior High School in Chalan Piao.<\/p>\n
The Department of Public Safety has yet to release information about the fire but some residents in the area suspect it was deliberately started-like last January’s blaze that also partially affected Monte Carlo.<\/p>\n
Witnesses told Saipan Tribune that the fire started around 8:45pm. As of 9:50pm, thick smoke had already engulfed the one-story concrete building. At the time, residents observed that firefighters had yet to spray water into the building.<\/p>\n
A witness said firefighters extinguished the blaze shortly before 12am Thursday.<\/p>\n
A check by Saipan Tribune at the scene yesterday afternoon showed that only the interior of the former Monte Carlo Club was burned.<\/p>\n
Employees and family members of Bammyss Bar and Grill, which is located in the same building, were seen cleaning the restaurant, which only sustained smoke damage.<\/p>\n
Firefighters prevented the blaze from spreading to Bammyss, which recently opened. Due to lack of power supply because of the fire, Bammyss was closed yesterday.<\/p>\n
Police and witnesses said the fire started in the stage of the former Monte Carlo Club. The establishment was closed in January after a fire that broke out at the back of the building damaged a portion of the club.<\/p>\n
Primo Ferrera, 47, a construction worker, said he was helping his wife, an employee of Bammyss, inside the restaurant when a customer came and told them that there was fire at the former Monte Carlo.<\/p>\n
Ferrera said he immediately ran to their house located at the back of the building and took their seven children to safety.<\/p>\n
Ferrera wasn’t able to salvage any other item but the blaze fortunately did not spread to their house.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a big fire in the stage area of Monte Carlo. It’s like the fire was caused by gas,\u201d he said in Tagalog.<\/p>\n
Last Jan. 12, a fire broke out at 11pm at the former barracks of Mary’s Bakery located behind Connie’s Diner (now Bammyss). The blaze razed the one-story abandoned barracks, which were made of light materials.<\/p>\n
The fire immediately spread and burned the sports bar section of Monte Carlo Club. Firefighters prevented the blaze from transferring to other parts of the club and to Connie’s Diner.<\/p>\n
Witnesses said that prior to the fire, an unidentified man entered Monte Carlo but did not order anything. After a few minutes he left and then returned some five to 10 minutes later and went to the restroom. After about two minutes, employees of the club learned that there was a big fire at the former Mary’s Bakery barracks located behind the club.<\/p>\n
The unidentified man was seen throwing rocks at the barracks as it was engulfed in flames.<\/p>\n
Two hours before that fire, another blaze razed an abandoned building of the former MGM Factory, only a few blocks away from Monte Carlo.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 17, 2011 three fires broke out close to each other in San Antonio, Chalan Piao, and Chalan Kanoa.<\/p>\n
Investigators suspected that two of those fires were intentionally set of.<\/p>\n
Last March, fire investigators confirmed that 11 fires that occurred from November 2011 to February of this year in the southern part of Saipan were all arson-related incidents.<\/p>\n
By Ferdie de la Torre
\nReporter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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