Six persons are now homeless after a fire believed to be of electrical origin, ripped through a Stewartville, West Demerara man’s home and furniture factory leaving millions in losses.
Ganesh Argosy, who is the owner of Vijai’s furniture factory, said that at about 8:00 pm yesterday while he and his family were in the living room, one of the members of his family noticed a glare from a neighbour’s window and realized that there was a fire.
When Stabroek News arrived at the Lot 38 Stewartville Housing Scheme home, family members who once occupied the now destroyed concrete structure were under a house in a neighbour’s yard; trying to come to grips with the reality that they had lost everything.
Argosy told this newspaper that the fire service acted promptly but was unable to control the blaze which started from his business and moved to his home.
When asked about his losses, Argosy said, “Well, we got to save some of the materials but all that is left is the clothes on our backs”.
Other members of the family were seen trying to explain to the younger members, ages 6-10 years old, what happened to their now destroyed home.
Kevin Danraj, who was at the scene of the fire when it started said that the community had long periods of blackout during the day. Danraj explained that when the lights came on at about 7:45 pm, about 10 minutes after, smoke was seen issuing from the factory.
“Because all them furniture and wood been in there it spread quickly and start catching the roof, we start throwing water but it get strong. The fire service came on time but they had a number of difficulties”, Danraj noted.
He added that when the fire service arrived, the pump of the truck malfunctioned and took another 20 minutes to fully pump water through the hose. By this time the fire, he said, had already moved to the front of the building and forced the family to evacuate leaving everything behind.
