Fire suspected to be electrical in origin gutted a two-flat three-bedroom house and small business place at Guava Bush, Albion on the Corentyne around 1:13 pm on Easter Monday.
Owner of the house, Ramesh Nathur estimated his losses to be in excess of $3M, including cash, gold jewellery and household articles. He was unable to save anything.
Residents said that the fire tender from the Albion Sugar Estate arrived in time and could have saved the house but it ran out of water.
The Rose Hall Fire Service was also contacted but by the time it reached the scene the house had already been destroyed.
Nathur told Stabroek News that the fire was reportedly started from his faulty pre-paid meter. Nathur said when the Guyana Power & Light (GPL) installed the meter it worked fine for the first couple of months until one day when it “rejected the recharge code.”
Nathur said he made several reports to GPL and the workers came and tried the code but the same thing happened. They then spoke to “someone in charge” and were told to connect the wires directly to the house.
His wife continued to make reports about the “illegal connections” and was told that she was “having free current.”
The woman told this newspaper that the fire started directly from the faulty connections.
Shivmangal said she went to GPL to make a report but the manager was on the phone and was not paying any attention to her so she left.
Nathur said they were over at his sister-in-law’s house, a few doors away to spend the day when he received a call from a neighbour that smoke was emanating from his house. He left to investigate but by then the house was already in flames.
The couple is willing to accept donations from persons and can be contacted on 661-8765.
