A mysterious fire early Monday morning des-troyed the interior and roof of an unoccupied two-storey concrete house at Bloomfield, Corentyne, Berbice.
Homeowner Premchand Parag resides overseas and no one was in the house at the time of the fire, which gutted the entire interior.
Stabroek News understands that the house was recently renovated to the tune of millions of dollars and there were also additional works to be completed.
According to a neighbour, Joseph Ledra, on Monday morning he and his family were awakened sometime around 2 am by loud shouting from the road. The man said he peeked out and saw flames emanating from the roof of his neighbour’s home.
At that point, he said, he and his family evacuated his house and waited on the fire service. He further stated that when the fire service arrived, Parag’s house was already engulfed in flames and the firefighters moved to wet two houses that were close by to prevent the fire from spreading to them.
Another neighbour said he got up around 2.30 am to find a crowd at the scene and firefighters working assiduously to put out the fire and save the homes next door. He praised firefighters for their quick response.
According to reports too, in January this year there was a fire at the same house. Like this time, the house was unoccupied and arson was suspected then as investigations had revealed a high gasoline odour in several rooms.
Stabroek News understands that the owner of the house is expected in the country to evaluate his losses soon.