A Cane View, South Ruim-veldt house was gutted by a fire last evening leaving a 56-year-old man homeless.
The Lot 608/609 Cane View, South Ruimveldt house is owned by a woman named Barbara who rented the house to the man who only identified himself as “Smallie”.
According to a resident, she first noticed the fire at approximately 6 pm and immediately raised an alarm. “We get out our pressure washers and started to spray the building with water,” she said.
When this newspaper arrived at the scene at 6.25 pm the two fire trucks were already present and the men had already doused the blaze. Smallie’s neighbour said that the service responded “speedily” to their call and the fire was quickly controlled.
Smallie told Stabroek News that he was in the house when he “felt the heat” and he had to jump through a window to escape. The man said that all his belongings were destroyed.
One of the man’s neighbours said that she looked over into his yard and saw him staring in shock at the smoke rising from the building. “I shout to he and tell him to run out of there,” the neighbour recalled.
Barbara’s niece who arrived at the scene at about 6.45 pm asked the man how the fire had started. “It was electrical,” Smallie said, “…the people who did the wiring didn’t do it good,” he told the woman.
The owner’s niece said that the house was rewired two years ago and she “can’t see how the fire could’ve been caused electrically”.
Smallie, still shaken from the incident, said that he would be staying with relatives. The man added that he was glad to be safe.
