On the last day of the week, baseball suffered a hard blow. At around 11:00 am, an alarm was raised for a container on fire in Gallegostraat.
The fire fighters were mobilized to the scene, and indeed, upon arrival, they found a piece of land on fire that had spread into a container. Immediate action was taken, and they managed to get the fire under control before it fully engulfed the container. The neighbor quickly contacted the owner of the container, who is the well-known athlete Karel “KayKay” Williams, an active sportsman. KayKay appeared on-site to assess the damage.
In an interview with a representative of the Headlines Group, the publishing house of 24ora.com and TREMPAN, he mentioned that it is frustrating to wake up on Sunday morning and be informed that your container is damaged. Many things were lost, but they managed to retrieve some of the items unscated. Among the burned items were baseball equipment and some personal belongings. These included many baseball shoes, gloves, catcher sets, a BBQ pit, a door, and much more.
The container was originally at KayKay’s house, but during the election period, he was asked to move it because it was obstructing. They decided to relocate it to his sister’s lot. It had been broken into twice before, but now they decided to install a much stronger lock. There wasn’t much valuable stuff inside, mostly baseball material. Fortunately, they were able to salvage many baseball uniforms that didn’t burn.
KayKay mentioned that for many years, he has been requesting the government to execute a project for Little League, but to this day, nothing has happened. Governments have come and gone, of all colors, but nothing for sports. He has three containers filled with materials for baseball, but they remain unused and neglected. “I’m tired,” Williams said. With great sorrow, KayKay commented that after almost sixty years in baseball, this is the gift he receives. The entire area is turning into a dump. Since Minister Ursell Arends closed the dump at Parkietenbos, many mini-dumps have sprung up around Aruba. Serlimar has been asked on multiple occasions to clean up the area, but nothing has been done.
