An eight-year-old girl shepherded her three younger siblings, including a one-year-old, to safety as a fire consumed their Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara home yesterday.
Eight persons are now homeless and pondering their future, in the light of all their possessions being destroyed.
The fire, which started some time before 11 am yesterday, destroyed the L3 New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop home and relatives believe that it was electrical in origin given the problems they had had with the electrical wire leading to the two-storey building. The eight-year-old girl, Diana, and her three younger siblings were the only ones at home when the fire started.
A firefighter, Rehlon Sam, 23, suffered an electrical shock when he came into contact with the wire connecting the home to the wires on the electricity pole. He recovered, but was taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital and subsequently to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he was admitted, the police said in a press release yesterday. The wire was being disconnected but was apparently not fully detached, when he came into contact with it.
One neighbour told Stabroek News that he noticed that the upper flat of the building was on fire sometime before 11 am and called the fire department. Others said that the firemen took some time to arrive by which time the flames were raging and had already destroyed a major portion of the home.
With tears flowing from her eyes as she watched the smoking embers of her home, Lalkoari Mansaram called ‘Doreen’, 60, recalled that she was at a store in Vreed-en-Hoop when she received a call that her house was on fire. She immediately hurried home and saw the flames. “The whole roof was on fire,” she recalled noting that when she arrived the fire service was not there yet. She said that they had had many problems with the wire that supplied electricity to their home. “We always have some problem with the connection to the house, the wires always sparking,” she stated.
Manasaram’s daughter, Botesha Glasglow, a single parent and her five children and another of Mansaram’s granddaughters lived at the house. Glasglow related that she had gone to buy some food items when she received a call informing her that the house was on fire.
Diana, meanwhile, said she had gone upstairs and heard something “sparkling” and saw smoke. The eight-year-old said she then told her younger siblings and they opened the gate and left.
Glasglow noted that they had made a number of complaints to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) about the wires and though it had been checked the problem reoccurred.
The family had lived there for about 15 years and tears flowed as they pondered their next move. “I don’t know what to do after this, I ain’t getting help from nowhere,” Manasaram cried stating that her son, then her husband had died some years back.
She said the entire building with their possessions was worth about $5 million and added that jewellery and some money was also burnt. Yesterday, they were unsure about where they would spend the night.