A house rented by a family of three in Sophia was last evening gutted when the candle a teenager had in her possession fell on a mattress and started a blaze.
No one was injured, in the fire which started around 7pm, but the family was unable to save any of their belongings and had to seek refuge with friends of their church last night as they mull their next move.
The home was without power as the Guyana Power and Light had disconnected service from the home earlier in the day.
Wayne Hinds, his wife and their teenage daughter had occupied the Lot 1054 Bouyer Street, Section B Sophia home since March of this year their landlord noted.
The woman related that she was on her way to pick up her young daughter from her mother’s home, which is a short distance away in the same street when her husband received a call informing her that the house was on fire.
“We were just around the corner coming to pick up my daughter when someone called my husband to tell him the house was on fire and by the time we got here it was already in big flames,” she said.
According to neighbours, Hinds and his family did not call out for help but ran out of the building. “He didn’t scream `fire’, we just see the big ball a fire and is so people come out and start seeing how they could help out,” one neighbour said.
“We couldn’t save nothing and nobody din taking the chance and go in there because the roof collapse then bam the floor fall in too,” he added.
Other neighbours alerted the Guyana Fire Service who they said responded promptly but could not manage to salvage any household articles from the home as the “fire ketch quick quick”.
