A Better Hope, East Coast Demerara family was forced to evacuate their home early yesterday morning after a fire that was set in a nearby landfill destroyed parts of the structure.
Charran Sahadeo told Stabroek News that a fire was initially set on Saturday, allegedly by a neighbour, and repeated efforts had to be made to extinguish it.
Around 7.30am yesterday, he said, the fire was again set and this time it quickly spread and destroyed sections of his Lot 7 Better Hope, Railway Embankment house.
According to Sahadeo, his neighbour, Raymond Ally, owns the two empty lots that are situated on the eastern side of his house. For the past eight years, he said, Ally filled the land with old tyres.
“This man keep landfilling this place with tyre for years, about eight years now. Saturday he lit a fire here and the fire keep raising because of the tyre and the fire keep raising up every now and then and every time the fire raise up, we keep calling the fire service,” Sahadeo explained. “Then eventually this morning the fire spread with a speed and it come around this side. It burn down we fence and part ah the house at the side,” he added.
Ally was subsequently taken into police custody.
The house is occupied by Sahadeo and ten others, including two children.
A number of household items and personal belongings were also destroyed as a result of the fire.
“All we wares, everything damage up. All we new mat them damage up. Only Christmas we buy these things”, another occupant, Roseann Narayan, said.
The family also expressed dissatisfaction at the responses they received from the Guyana Fire Service. “…They took they own time to come. Every time the fire raising up fuh the past couple days, we calling them and they saying that they fed up comin’ hay,” Narayan said. “Even-tually when they come, meh whole house hay almost bun down. When we call them, they say that how they done come Saturday five times and they can’t be coming to one location all the time. So I tell them the house near to burn down, if they gun come when it burn down and the girl blam down the phone to me,” she explained.
She said it was after neighbours called several other times after that the fire tenders arrived.
Hours after they arrived, firefighters remained at the scene to control the blaze.
A section of the Railway Embankment was also covered in thick black smoke, which resulted in a build-up of traffic.
As a result, traffic had to be diverted to the main public road.
The family described Ally as a “troublemaker,” and their claims were supported by other residents. “He (Ally) disgusting bad. He does mind bees and suh. One time they get away and attack a set of we from here,” Narayan said.
She stressed that the fire could have been more serious if the necessary actions were not taken in time. “Watch wah happen deh. Suppose now the children or somebody been bun up in deh wah woulda happen? It coulda be more,” she added.
The family is calling on the relevant authorities to take the necessary actions against Ally. “The Government have to take back this man place because we went into the ministry ah housing already and they aint do nothing about it. We went to the NDC (Neighbourhood Democratic Council) all, EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) all we went to and up to now nobody nah tell he nothing,” Sahadeo lamented.
