A West Coast Berbice cash crop farmer is contemplating his next move after a fire of unknown origin destroyed his two-storey wooden house last Friday evening.
Tarasingh, 52, of Bath Coconut Estate, Naarstigheid Village, West Coast Berbice told Stabroek News, that he had resided in the house which was completely destroyed by the fire for over twenty-five years. The man said that he and his 14-year-old daughter were the only occupants of the house. He estimates his losses at $1.5 million.
According to Tarasingh, he and his daughter left home on Friday afternoon to head to Parika Market to sell their crops. However, a few villages into the journey, a neighbour informed Tarasingh that the house was engulfed in flames.
“A neighbour tell me the house on fire, me turn back immediately and collect the fire brigade, but by time we meet, everything burn,” said the devastated man.
“This house nah got electricity and nah carry lamp, we does use solar panels, I don’t know how this could have happened,” Tarasingh lamented. He speculated that someone might have purposely set his house on fire with all of his belongings inside. “I suspect somebody put the house on fire, but I can’t say is who because I does live good with everybody,” he added.
Stabroek News was told that Tarasingh’s house is located on government land. However, he was one of the eight persons who attended a meeting with the Regional Executive Officer of Region Five, Ovid Morrison earlier in the year, which made him eligible for one acre of land. “Them [Region officials] been ask we to vacate the land, but then them been come to one compromise, to give we one acre of land each, but not everybody get, just the people who went to the meeting,” he noted.
The distraught farmer said that his main concern at the moment is ensuring that his daughter continues to attend school regularly despite the circumstances.
“We will board up the lil piece that nah burn and live there for now,” he explained. Tarasingh, who has since moved into his adoptive parents] home said, “I appeal to the public that any help I will accept.”
Persons who wish to assist Tarasingh can make contact with him on telephone number 691 7167.
