An early morning fire razed a Rosignol house yesterday. Una Devi, 56, said she lived in the two-storey house all of her life.
Both she and her daughter, Saniliya, who also lived at the property, were at a loss as to the cause of the fire.
Stabroek News met the tearful mother and her daughter at the home of a relative next door to the burnt building.
Devi said the fire started in a room which had no electrical appliance or anything that could have ignited a fire.
At the time Devi said she was in a hammock underneath the house. From there, she heard a strange sound at the back of the house and as she ventured to enquire she observed thick smoke coming from a bedroom in the upper flat.
The woman raised an alarm but since most of the neighbours were at the market, there was very little help to douse the fire.
A neighbour said she called 911, but the person who answered said that they could not offer any help and the family needed to call the fire service directly.
After repeated calls to the fire service, the phone was eventually answered. Firefighters came about 20 minutes after the call was made and when they arrived they came with no water, a neighbour said.
By then the fire had become uncontrollable as it had already spread throughout the building.
Devi said she was not able to save anything from the fire. The distraught woman added that just before the fire she was admiring her house because she had completed cleaning it for the upcoming Diwali observations.
“Me come over by the neighba house and meh admiring the house after meh don clean…is meh Diwali meh had deh…,” the woman cried.
Devi said she had recently extended the house. The total loss is estimated to be about $5 million, the woman said.
