A quick response by firefighters prevented the destruction of a Republic Park home yesterday afternoon.
Firefighters, who arrived promptly after a neighbour reported that the Lot 461 Fordyce Street, Republic Park home was engulfed in flames, succeeded in containing the fire to the upper flat of the two-storey structure.
The house is said to be owned by Erma Bovell, an overseas-based Guyanese, and was being rented by a mother and her two children. At the time of the fire, no one was at home.
But the flames were spotted by a neighbour, who thanked the firemen for a job well done. She said that she did not see anyone suspicious around the home and that there was a power outage almost all day. She was unsure as to the exact time the fire may have started.
Stabroek News was told by the firefighters that some construction workers who were working nearby assisted them in clearing a path for them to get to the fire site. The firefighter said that they were forced to break open a door in the bottom flat of the house to get in since all the windows were grilled. He also told Stabroek News that all the rooms in the upper flat were scorched and sections of the bottom flat sustained water damage.
Bovell’s brother, who arrived after the fire was extinguished, said that his sister was abroad and she had rented out sections of the home to a tenant. Up to the time this newspaper left the site, firefighters were yet to determine the cause of the fire.
