A nine-year-old girl was hospitalised after she was severely burnt in a fire on Sunday morning, in which she and her family lost their home.
Punita Lalchand was burnt as her father attempted to escape with her to safety, after discovering their Lot 40 Pigeon Island, East Coast Demerara home on fire. It was one of two fires since Sunday; the other saw quick action by neighbours saving a Grove, East Bank Demerara house.
According to Subhas Lalchand, he was awakened around 4am by the smell of smoke and upon opening his front door, he was met with blazing fire which had already engulfed the lower flat and had caught the staircase.
The man’s wife, Ramdai, escaped with the couple’s 13-year-old daughter through a bedroom window while he grabbed Punita and went back to the door. From the landing, he jumped to a shed with his daughter in hand. The shed’s zinc sheets were hot and Lalchand fell to his knees, while his daughter rolled out of his grasp. Lalchand said he eventually had to throw her to the ground, after which he jumped.
By this time, neighbours had already surrounded the property with their buckets and hoses in an effort to contain the blaze. Ramdai stated that within 20 minutes, her home was burnt to the ground and nothing could be saved.
Punita, meanwhile, sustained burns to both her hands and legs and has since undergone surgery to have the dead skin removed. She is recovering slowly and she remains a patient in the Paediatric Ward of the Georgetown Public Hospital, where her mother is staying with her. The child is said to be constantly complaining of pain. Lalchand too sustained burns to the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet. He said it is very painful when he walks.
‘Quick action’
Meanwhile, quick action by residents of Second Street, Grove, on the East Bank of Demerara, saved a house in the area from going up in flames on Wednesday.
Sometime around 3:30 pm, a visitor at the home of Travis McKintosh at Lot 150 Second Street, Grove observed smoke emanating from the rear of the bottom flat of the two-storey building. An alarm was subsequently raised and residents quickly formed a bucket brigade and managed to contain the fire.
McKintosh noted that he lived at the bottom flat of the building with his wife and four children while seven persons occupied the top flat. He said that he was at work several streets away when he was informed of the fire. The man noted that when he arrived at the scene, persons were already working to put out the blaze while his relatives were removing furniture and other articles form the house. He said the fire started at a room at the back of the building.
The man noted that the fire service was informed of the situation but when the firemen arrived the fire was already contained. McKintosh expressed appreciation to his neighbours whose heroic efforts, he noted, saved his home.
