Wendy Constantine watched as her stall, Moby Dick Restaurant and Bar, on Potter’s Cay Dock, burned to the ground on Sunday night. 

“It was overwhelming,” said Constantine, who is president of the Bahamas Dock and Allied Venues Association.

“It’s devastating to see what you’ve put into something, your life savings, and the memories.

“Now you have staff unemployed, so it’s an overwhelming feeling right now at this time.”

Constantine said she had her stall for 11 years and employed three people.

Police said the fire started shortly before midnight on the eastern end of the dock. It was unclear what caused the fire. Some vendors speculated that it was the result of a lightning strike.

Ormanique Bowe, president of Potter’s Cay Dock Fish, Fruit and Vegetable Vendors Association, said six stalls and two boats were destroyed and two other stalls were damaged. 

Constantine and other stall owners gathered in the ruins of the still smouldering ashes of their stalls yesterday morning. 

Blackened and charred doors were heaped in a pile.

A twisted light pole, partly blackened by the blaze, was bent and touching the ground.

Old gas tanks and other cooking appliances were visible. Ash and debris were everywhere. Remnants of a wooden dock were smoking well into the morning.

HEALTH Minister Renward Wells said building work in the maternity ward at Princess Margaret Hospital has now been completed after a social media post went viral this weekend, showing unsanitary conditions.

Photos showing missing ceiling tiles and mould on the hospital’s ceiling were widely circulated on social media, sparking public outrage.

“I am not pleased at all. Am I dog or Bahamian... in my own country,” said one maternity patient who posted the images on Facebook.

“I just have baby and (must) place her with all this (mould) and I can’t even breathe through this. The water leaking from the roof. The bathroom (mould) over the toilet.”

This maternity ward is no joke, plus no damn ac (sic).”

Similar comments were posted online by Bahamian mothers, who cried shame on the government for allowing patients to experience childbirth under such deplorable conditions.

When asked to respond to the patients’ concerns yesterday, Mr Wells told reporters outside Cabinet: “The reality is I understand that the project was supposed to have already been brought to completion. It was some work that was identified about two weeks ago and the work is now completed.”

In a statement, the Public Hospitals Authority and Princess Margaret Hospital apologised for the conditions depicted in the photographs.

“The hospital wishes to apologise for the concerns raised regarding the environment pictured in the social media post and is pleased to advise that the corrective works have now been completed,” PHA said.

“PMH has taken additional action to ensure that messaging, signage, and protective barriers are implemented whenever corrective work or refurbishment projects are being carried out, in keeping with standard operating procedures.

Happening now: Police have closed Village Rd just north of Wulff Road junction.

Source say it was a shooting at Von's. Person shot 3 times in the chest.

More to follow

POLICE are urging members of the public to drive with “extreme caution and care” over Christmas after two separate accidents claimed the lives of two men, one in Abaco, the other in Grand Bahama over the weekend. Speed was said to play a factor in both traffic fatalities.

The first incident occurred shortly after 6pm on Saturday. According to reports, police in Grand Bahama were called to a traffic accident on East Sunrise Highway and Waterfall Drive involving a 2004 white Mercedes Benz with a male driver and a red 2012 Honda Accord Coupe with three passengers.