A major fire struck sawmill Nooitgedacht N.V. on Duisburglaan in Paramaribo again on Saturday evening. The fire spread rapidly. The fire service was deployed to prevent further spread. Nothing has yet been officially announced about the cause or damage.
The fire at sawmill Nooitgedacht broke out in the early evening on Saturday, September 5, 2026, on the company premises on Duisburglaan, in the Flora police precinct. According to initial information, the fire rapidly increased in size within a short time, prompting the immediate deployment of the fire service to bring the flames under control and prevent further spread.
The premises contain large quantities of timber and other flammable material. This makes fighting a fire at this location particularly difficult. Personnel from the Korps Brandweer Suriname (Suriname Fire Service) were engaged in firefighting operations on Saturday evening, while it was still unclear how long it would take before the situation was fully under control.
Nothing has yet been officially announced about the cause of the fire at sawmill Nooitgedacht. It has also not yet been established how extensive the material damage is and whether parts of the premises have been completely lost. Initial reports likewise contained no confirmed information about injuries. Further information from the competent authorities is therefore awaited.
Fire at sawmill Nooitgedacht recalls memories of 2023
This is not the first time Nooitgedacht has been hit by a major fire. On October 10, 2023, Key News reported extensively on a massive blaze at Nooitgedacht and the adjacent sawmill De Eenheid. At that time too, the fire spread rapidly across the premises on Duisburglaan and large quantities of roundwood were lost.
According to reporting at the time, Nooitgedacht had already been inactive for several years. According to initial information, the fire started on the premises of Nooitgedacht and then spread to De Eenheid. Kiran Banwarie, who spoke on behalf of the family business De Eenheid, estimated at the time that more than US$ 300,000 worth of timber had been lost there alone. The building of De Eenheid was able to be saved by the fire service. The earlier Key News article can be read here.
The investigation into the fire at sawmill Nooitgedacht will have to establish exactly where the fire started, which parts of the premises were affected and how extensive the total damage is. The first priority remains bringing the fire fully under control and preventing further spread.
