A 67-year-old farmer of Canal No 2, West Bank Demerara suffered $8M in losses after his citrus farm accidentally went up in flames on Wednesday.
Deodat Ori told Stabroek News that the four-acre farm, which was located behind his house was destroyed while another farmer was burning his cane field. The fire “accidentally escaped into my farm” and quickly began spreading out of control.
Ori, who is also a private cane farmer and a member of the La-Retraite/Stanleytown Cane Farmers’ Marketing Society, said residents assisted by forming a bucket brigade but their efforts to put the fire out were in vain.
At the time of the fire, Ori, was attending to his 40-acre cane farm at La-Retraite.
He received a message that the farm was on fire and by the time he got there everything had already been destroyed.
He told this newspaper sadly that he would spend “all my leisure time on my farm. I was depending on this in my old age.”
Apart from the citrus he also has other fruits, including soursop, bananas and ‘mamie apple.
