Explosive devices were hurled at a Sophia home yesterday but quick action by residents averted a major disaster.
The occupants of the Lot 12 Denis Street, South Turkeyen house that was the target of the attack insisted that it was the work of a woman who had made a threat the previous day. Shellon Sancho recalled that around 02:30hrs she awoke to hear four explosions. Shortly after, she heard her grandfather shouting ‘fire.’ Sancho looked out her bedroom window and saw a bright glow on her neighbour’s house and assumed that that house was on fire. However, when she went to the front of her house she was met with flames. Her grandfather ran to get a bucket of water to quell the flames while she scrambled two sleeping children out of the building, according to the woman.
By this time neighbours were alerted and formed a bucket brigade.
At the scene, the front of the house was damaged and a building in front of it was completely destroyed. A shop nearby was scorched.
According to Sancho, her uncle, who owned the gutted building and lived at the bottom of the two-storey house, had a problem with a former girlfriend who he accused of breaking into his house and stealing several items. Sancho added that on the previous day, the two ended up at the Turkeyen Police Station and some of the stolen articles were returned to the man. The woman, she added, denied taking any jewellery from the home as was claimed.
Sancho told Stabroek News that while at the station the woman threatened her uncle in front of the police. She said that though the woman lives in the area, she did not come during or after the fire. Sancho added that persons in the area reportedly saw her board a mini bus and that was the last time she was seen.
A quantity of office chairs and other items that were in the destroyed building were lost while Sancho lost about $140,000 in stock and two freezers, as a result of the incident.
She said that based on the sounds she heard before the shouts of fire, someone threw explosive devices at the house with the aim of burning it down.
She said that the police visited the home several hours after the blaze had been extinguished by residents and they have since been told that they needed to take an estimate of their losses and damages to the station.
Sancho urged the police to investigate the matter urgently, especially since the woman had made a threat while at the police station.