Seven persons, including five children under the age of 18, are now homeless after a fire razed their Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara home this morning.
Anita Drupa, 34, and Phillip Trotz, 51, of 429 Chateau’s Land, West Meten-Meer-Zorg must now decide their next move.
It was around 9.30 am that Drupa, was alerted by her neighbour that smoke was billowing from a bedroom window.
Drupa said she had just returned home from the market, where she works as a vendor. According to her, when she got home, four of her children were asleep upstairs while the fifth was playing on the steps. She unpacked the groceries then woke her children to tell them that she was home. “Them only come down to see what I bring,” she said.
They were all downstairs when the cry was raised by a neighbour. “By time me go fuh run up so [upstairs] me can’t bother come to the door front to see if me could get anything.” The fire had already engulfed the top of the house and Drupa only had time to grab her children and run.
She feels the fire may have been electrical in origin. According to her, at the time of her arrival home, there was a blackout. The outcry of fire came shortly after electricity returned.
According to several reports, the blaze couldn’t be fought because there was no water in the vicinity. Residents of the community were instead forced to wait on the fire service which took “a good time” to arrive on the scene, they said.
By the time firefighters arrived, the house was reportedly already far gone.
When this newspaper arrived at the burnt home, Drupa and her husband, who had been called from his cane harvesting job, were assessing the damage. Among their losses were three refrigerators, a television, four beds and a gas stove. They also lost about 200 chickens and ducks.
In the meantime, Drupa and her family are contemplating staying with her brother-in-law and his household, who occupy a small home in the same yard.
