A Princes St, Wortmanville resident died yesterday afternoon after he collapsed upon seeing a fire destroying the apartment building that he and others called their home.
The deceased, Gavin North, who was a driver at the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, was a tenant at the Lot 48 Princes Street building.
The man, who appeared to be in his 50s, was not at home at the time of the fire but fainted after he arrived at the scene.
The upper flat of the apartment building went up in flames just around minutes to one yesterday afternoon and left several families counting their losses.
The upper flat of the building, which housed five apartments, was destroyed, while the bottom flat sustained water damage. A swift response by the Guyana Fire Service prevented the fire from spreading to other buildings
nearby.
When Stabroek News arrived at the scene, neighbours surrounded the dying man on the road as he panted for breath. Some neighbours resorted to fanning him and placing a pillow beneath his head for support. Several of them berated a police officer in a nearby police truck for not rendering assistance to the helpless man and for instead sitting comfortably in his air-conditioned vehicle. Minutes later, an ambulance arrived and first aid responders began tending to North, who had already slipped into an unconscious state. He was thereafter transported to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs announced North’s passing on its Facebook page and the fire service later confirmed it.
North’s neighbours related that the man had lived at the property for the last four years. One woman shared that just before Christmas the man had bought a new television.
North lived alone.
The fire was said to have started in the kitchen of the northernmost apartment on the upper flat. Several occupants who were home at the time managed to salvage handfuls of articles that belonged to them. Others who were not at home at the time of the fire said they suffered significant losses.
The Guyana Fire Service’s Divisional Officer for Operations Gregory Wickham told reporters that after the service received a report about the fire, three tenders responded from the Central Fire Station and the West Ruimveldt Fire Station.
“On arrival at the scene, they recognised that the top floor of the building was fully engulfed and they sprang into action. Investigative work after that revealed that there were three occupants of the building who were on scene. However, in the area where the fire started, no one was in that apartment at that time of the fire…. Investigators are going through the process of eliminating and identifying, possibly, what may have been left on, if at all, or any other cause that may lead us to determine the cause of the fire,” Wickham said.
‘Nothing we ain’t get to save’
National Communi-cations Network (NCN) cameraman Keiron Campbell was one of the tenants who was home at the time of the fire. The man had occupied the apartment with his wife and their son since November. Campbell estimated his losses to be more than 1.5 million dollars. “I was there in my apartment, the fire started at the back…,” the traumatised man said.
Campbell indicated that the landlord, Gordon Copland, had only moments before returned from the court, where he has an ongoing case with the tenant who occupies the apartment where the fire originated.
Copland declined to comment when approached by this newspaper.
As firefighters were putting out the blaze, Kelvin McDonald stood in shock as the apartment where he had lived for the last two months lay amidst charred debris. The Camex Security employee was not at home at the time of the fire. “The only thing I have now that belongs to me is my working clothes that I have on. I can’t say what caused the fire but the only thing I could think about at the moment is that this man [the landlord] get a set of join-up wire. He get them guys coming and doing a set of cheap labour for thousand dollars to hook up wire and all kinda thing. Only the other day he telling we that he gon raise the rent from the first of January,” he said.
His sister, Shancey Mc Donald, who shared the apartment with him and her four children, said she too was not at home at the time of the fire. The woman related that she learnt of the fire via a phone call which prompted her return home. She noted that nothing from their apartment was saved. “All my documents, my children documents, my brother stuff, the appliances gone. Nothing we ain’t get to save,” she lamented.
The distraught woman added that she was close to getting through with a security job at Sherriff Security Service and she was unsure what would happen now since her documents, which she was expected to submit, were destroyed in the fire.
“Right now I ain’t know what gon’ happen because I was close to getting through with this job and I was supposed to take the documents in and start working Thursday but I don’t know what gon’ happen… we ain’t even sure where we sleeping yet tonight, we ain’t get not a clue where we staying,” the young mother of four further lamented.
Joel Jordan, another occupant of the building, told Stabroek News he only managed to save two gas bottles and a few other small articles from the burning building.
He explained that he was at home when he smelt something burning and made several checks. “I started to smell smoke and I went and smell the points and check them but nothing. At the same time another neighbour come out and he too smell something burning and when he walked around at the back he saw fire in the last apartment. I just try to get my things and I managed to get some of my stuff, which was two gas bottles and some other small things but my bed and gas stove with some other items burn up,” Jordan, who shared the apartment with his wife, said.
The tenants told this newspaper that they were not familiar with the occupant of the apartment where the fire originated since that tenant used a different entrance.
Wickham admonished members of the public to be careful while celebrating the holidays and to pay special attention when using electrical appliances.
