A Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara family suffered $15 million in losses when their two-storey wooden property, which housed the Glory Chinese Restaurant, went up in flames early yesterday morning.
At the time of the fire, which occurred around 2.30 am, Joshua Dookie, 38, was occupying the three-bedroom upper flat, while three Chinese nationals, who operated the restaurant, were dwelling in the two-bedroom lower flat.
Dookie’s mother, Annette, is currently holidaying in the US and his father, Eldad, was away at his farm at Hog Island.
He told Stabroek News he was jerked out of sleep when he felt the intense heat and heard the loud crackling sound and got up to investigate.
He noticed fire coming from the kitchen in the lower flat and could do nothing but to run out to safety.
By then, neighbours became aware of the fire and they contacted the Guyana Fire Service. A fire tender arrived at the scene about 45 minutes later. Dookie said that the water was exhausted within 10 minutes. No further effort was made to put the fire out because the building was quickly engulfed.
The fire then started to spread to the neighbour’s house on the western side but another fire tender arrived just in time to save that building. The house was badly scorched and two plastic water tanks that were on a trestle were destroyed. The fruit trees in both yards were also burnt.
The guttering around the neighbour’s house on the eastern side was also scorched. Dookie, who did mining in the interior and stopped because of the decline in the gold industry, was still shaken when this newspaper visited the scene yesterday.
