Electrical appliances belonging to home owners were damaged during a power surge at the Reliance Settlement, East Canje on Boxing Day.
In addition, frozen food and other items stored in refrigerators had to be disposed of, following the halt in the electricity flow. Residents are now worried as to when they will have their appliances replaced.
The 20-odd affected residents visited the Guyana Power and Light commercial
building, in New Amsterdam yesterday, where they were each issued with claim forms. According to Shonnel Simon, of Lot 1 Reliance Settlement, she observed a nearby transformer sparking on Christmas Eve. After several telephone calls to the utility company, an employee responded, and promised to send technicians to the area on Boxing Day.
“On awakening on December 26,” Simon said. “I observed the GPL technicians on the utility pole, when suddenly I heard a ‘boom!’.My microwave was in smoke. I called the workers and they came in looked at the appliance and told me to go into the company office in New Amsterdam for a claim form. I will have to look for my receipt. I paid $38,000 for the microwave.”
Another affected resident, Cedric Bascom, was grateful that his family was at home when his flat-screen television, cordless phone and his music set went up in smoke. “If no one was at home it might have been catastrophic. My home might have been destroyed,” he said. “Imagine you work so hard to
acquire these things to make your family happy and because of someone’s negligence, [they are] destroyed.”
Karran Ramsook, also speaking to the media outside the utility company’s building at Strand, New Amsterdam, just before midday yesterday, said, he was on his telephone on an overseas call, while his music set was playing, when he heard a “boom”, emit from his CD player. “The electric lights went out and my cordless phone, a Panasonic, burned in the process. I turned off the main switch, after which my son ran a short distance, informing the GPL workers, who were at the time repairing a transformer, what had occurred.” He said the utility workers subsequently went to his home and looked at the damaged items before telling him to visit the GPL New Amsterdam branch yesterday. But when he and other affected residents got there, he said, “We were just given the forms; no one met us. They said neither the manager nor supervisor was at the location. The claim form says we must have a receipt for damaged items. I don’t know if I can find those receipts. I had my electric bulbs over 20 years. The items cost in excess $200,000.”
Another resident, Michael Ramdeen the owner of an internet café of Lot 4 Reliance Settlement, recalled hearing an unusual noise before smelling something burning.
As a result, he unplugged several appliances and called an electrician, who informed him that his fridge and his five V-Tech cordless phones, were damaged as a result of the surge. Ramdeen could not assess the damage as his telephones were bought overseas, and he could not remember the cost of his fridge.
Ramdeen said, as a result of the incident, the residents are extremely fearful, especially at nights as they are questioning whether there would be a recurrence, which may result in the loss of homes and lives.
“My neighbour, Brina, who was here earlier, lost her entire fridge. It was completely destroyed. It was a good thing she was at home,” Ramdeen said. The other residents also suffered damage to television sets, fridges, microwaves and music systems. Some of the appliances were bought for Christmas, while others were acquired years ago. The residents opined that the workers who were fixing the sparking transformer were negligent in their duties resulting in the power surge.
