Six people are now homeless after their Patentia, West Bank Demerara, home was reduced to ashes by the landlord, who they said rushed into the house with two cutlasses forcing them to flee before he set the place ablaze.
The fire started around 10.30 am and also scorched the outside of a shop resulting in a few items being damaged. Nothing was saved from the house and losses were estimated in the sum of $500,000.
The suspected arsonist has since been hiding and is said to be wanted by the police in connection with a number of other crimes.
The man was the owner of the one flat wooden building and he was said to be annoyed over the tenants’ refusal to vacate his house. Neighbours claimed that the man’s sister had placed the people to live in the abandoned house when they were looking for a place to rent. They added that when the man became aware that the people were living in his house he asked them to move but they refused hence his actions.
However, one of the occupants, Alicia Bobb, said they were renting the house from the man at a cost of $20,000 per month.
An eyewitness recounted that the landlord, who does not have a fixed place of abode, was seen drinking earlier and was also in the habit of “doing drugs”. The eyewitness said the man appeared to be “drunk” and “on drugs” when he saw him in front of the house saying “I get mad nobody can’t stop me.”
He then entered the house with the cutlasses and began breaking items. One of the occupants, a pregnant woman, was at home with a male person when the man entered and they ran outside after he threatened to chop them. The eyewitness said the man then threw some clothes on a mattress doused them with kerosene oil and set them on fire. He then escaped before the police arrived at the scene.
The neighbours told Stabroek News that they tried to prevent the fire from engulfing the building but “by de time we throw wata de fire start and de wire start busting up so we soak the house to the side.”
When the fire service arrived the building was already burned down but neighbours had prevented the fire from spreading to other houses nearby.
The neighbours also said that those who saw what was occurring were afraid to offer assistance since the man is “a bad man”.
Bobb said that she was at work in the city when someone called her informing her that her house was on fire. The woman, who was still in shock, had not gone to the scene and said she would go after work.
She said she did not know where she and her three children would live. Bobb said she, her children, another woman and her partner lived in the house.
Grocery shop owner, Anthony Thomas, told Stabroek News that the side of his building was scorched and a few items were damaged. Like Bobb, he too was in the city when he received a call informing him that his shop was on fire. The man said when he reached his business place persons had already removed some of the items from inside the shop. Thomas said he now has to repair the wall and that will cost him some $75,000.
