Almost three weeks after a fire razed their Quamina Street home in a mid-afternoon blaze, matriarch Vanessa Collymore and her family are appealing for assistance to rebuild.
“We are asking for whatever help we can get right now. So far two organisations have contacted us and donated some items, but we still need things like zinc, steel, sand… to start rebuilding,” Collymore said.
Collymore told Stabroek News she believed the incident stemmed from jealousy over the land. She said a man had been “… trying to sell the land and claiming that is his place… Is more than one time he threatened me about this land and how he would light everyone on fire in the house.
“Earlier last year he come by we after he drink up he liquor and say how we gotta move out of the house because is he land,” she said adding that a report was made to the police on that occasion, but to date nothing has been done.
Her brother, Compton Collymore, who works in the interior, related that he came to Georgetown the day after the fire and when he arrived at the house he was flabbergasted. “…When I come by the yard I see a big space so I had to look properly to make sure is the right house I deh at. It wasn’t nice to stand and see what happened,” he said, adding that he lost a lot of personal articles in the blaze. He said he could not now return to the interior and leave them. “I is the only man here other than my sister son and it wouldn’t be fair to go and leave them out here by themselves.
“I lost my bicycle, clothes and a set of things. Right now I deh pumping out this shoes cause is the only one I get,” he related.
He said that a kind-hearted individual promised “to give us some steel and other building materials to get started on rebuilding the house. Right now the family separated. Everyone deh staying by different relatives.”
During the day, a niece of Collymore’s cooks for the family in Sophia and transports the meals to the house, where the family gathers on a single mattress located at the rear of her former home to eat and converse. As night falls, the family disperses, and seeks refuge with relatives.
Vanessa Collymore stated that the fire came at an unfortunate time for the family and that she has not been able to return to work since she lost all of her clothing in the fire. “It catch everybody down. As old as the house was, we lost a lot in the fire. My daughter was looking to move on and get a place of her own, but now she get setback because of this. Is only recently she buy she fridge, washing machine and television. Now everything she lose,” the woman said.
Another sister said that this is the second fire and that they know who is responsible, but top officials in the police force are not doing anything about it. She said it was only the day before the fire that she made inquiries about the progress into the investigation and was told that it was closed. “They tell me that they finish investigating the matter and next day we house burn down. Nothing was up there to cause the fire, we had no electrical appliances up there. This was arson,” the woman stated.
Anyone desirous of assisting the family can contact Compton Collymore on telephone number 661-6037.
On July 7, the family’s home at Lot 197 Quamina and Camp streets was destroyed in the mid-afternoon blaze that started in the upper flat of Collymore’s home and spread to the cottage of her sister, Jacqueline Fortune and her family next door. Over 10 persons, including a three-month-old baby are now homeless as a result of the fire
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Collymore had said that on the day of the fire, she heard someone calling repeatedly for her grandson while she was downstairs cutting meat to cook. When she looked outside to see what the person wanted, she saw the upper flat of her home on fire.
A report on the origin of the fire is still to be issued by the Guyana Fire Service
Meanwhile, next door, repairs to the house of Jacqueline Soares, 69, which was also damaged by fire, is nearing completion. Her grandson, who works at a lumber yard, assisted in getting materials to rebuild the wall with the assistance of his boss. The electrical wiring on the building has to be redone as well, Soares told Stabroek News. The roof of the house was also damaged. Representatives from the GRC also spoke with her and promised to provide assistance to her, she added.
