A woman is now hospitalised after she escaped a fire at Buck Hill, Wismar, Linden that destroyed her family’s home yesterday afternoon.
Savitree Naranjan, 54, who had not regained consciousness at the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC) up to press time last evening, was with her partner John Moriah, 75, on the veranda of the house when the fire started around 2pm.
“Suddenly I hear she (Savitree) start screaming ‘fire, fire,’” Moriah told Stabroek News. With the alert, he ran into the house and found that the fire had already engulfed the master room of the two-storey wooden building and while he attempted to enter the room, the intensity of the flames warded him off.
“It was too much. I had to hustle and run out,” he explained, while adding that he then started panicking about the whereabouts of his two grandchildren, Shavannie Sukhu, five years, and Sabrina Sukhu, three years, who had been in the house playing. “Thank God they got out deh house. I don’t know how but they safe,” he said.
Naranjan, meanwhile, managed to run to safety without any physical harm, but she later collapsed at the scene while being consoled by family members and concerned residents. She was rushed to the LHC. Her family believes her high blood pressure and diabetes may have been responsible for her losing consciousness after enduring the ordeal of the fire, in which her family lost almost all its possessions.
The Linden Fire Department was praised for its prompt response and its efforts to put out the fire. “They came quick but still they couldn’t save nothing, everything gone,” said a close relative. Despite the efforts of neighbours and some public-spirited residents who had rushed to the scene to render assistance, only two motorcycles that were housed in the bottom flat were saved. The motorcycles, which belonged to Naranjan’s son, were, however, damaged by fire. The family, which has been living at the location about nine years, estimated its losses in the millions.
