Two Chinese nationals perished in a fire which in the wee hours of today ravaged the Public Road, Vreed-en-Hoop home and supermarket they rented along with four other buildings on the busy West Coast of Demerara business stretch.
The names of the two persons are still unknown.
Jagash Mangal who lives opposite the home of the two victims, and in whose yard the duo would park their vehicle at nights, said that it was he who alerted others of the fire and who called for aid from the fire service, police and Guyana Power and Light.
“I wake up after 1:30 like because my dogs were barking barking. I have cameras so I checked them but didn’t see anything but the dogs just won’t stop. So I look out and I see smoke from the North Eastern building and I run to the phone to call 911,” he told the Stabroek News.
“The 911 keep ringing out so I call La Grange station and dem ask me if I called (the) fire (service) and I told them no and they said they will call and I still called but I also say let me call GPL because I know they numbers and I thought about the electricity wires and so,” he added.
While the Lot 34 A and B properties are owned by Faizal Rayman, this newspaper was told that the others are owned by overseas-based persons who rent them.
The 83-year-old Rayman lives in the upper flat of one of his buildings and had to be helped out of the building by his live-in help Akbar (only name given).
The buildings housed around eight businesses such as the Chow Singh Chinese Restaurant, Robin’s Book Store, Phone Guru, clothing stores and the Wishful Supermarket where the two persons were found dead, in the upper flat.
This newspaper understands that the businesses had about 22 employees in total.
And even as the fire service up to this morning was still dousing the buildings, which were still smoking, other personnel and police took statements from the owners of the various businesses as their investigations continue.
