A family of three was burnt to death and two dozen other persons lost their homes after a fire of unknown origin destroyed a Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara, apartment complex last evening.
Dead are Dawall Ifill, 14, his mother Beverly Miller, 40, and his step-father Martin Lewis, 46, of Sixth Street, Cummings Lodge. Their bodies were discovered after firefighters were finally able to put out the blaze at around 7pm last evening.
According to eyewitnesses, the three were trapped in a room which had a grilled door and were unable to escape. When the firefighters retrieved their bodies from under the debris, they were clumped together as if they had been holding on to each other prior to or during their last moments. Neighbours also said that the three deceased could be heard shouting for help while the flames consumed their apartment.
As a result of the devastation, some 24 other tenants, including both adults and children who lived in apartments at the complex, were left unsure where they would be spending the night.
According to a neighbour, the fire started around 5.30 pm. The neighbour, as well as other persons at the scene, said that Guyana Fire Service took some time before it responded. At 6pm, when Sunday Stabroek arrived at the scene, the fire was still raging and firefighters could be seen trying to douse the flames while simultaneously avoiding them as they grew larger.
At the time, relatives of the deceased family were hysterically searching for them as they refused to believe the worst.
Although the origin of the fire was unknown, some tenants said a relative of the landlord had previously been working on some electrical wires before the fire started. The man was arrested while at the scene but the reasons for his arrest could not be confirmed by this newspaper.
A neighbour told Sunday Stabroek that the landlord lives in the United States and the relative usually collects rent and does maintenance of the building.
Coretta Lewis, who is the sister of Marvin Lewis, said that she was with him and his step-son, in front of the yard when the fire started. She said her two children were in her apartment when she heard a scream and she as well as her brother and nephew ran to their respective apartments. “Two of them was in the house and I heard a scream, I run. When I run, I see the place blazing. So I run in and I take out my baby and my step daughter. By time I run out from the house, I couldn’t run to the front, I couldn’t run nowhere else but stand at the back. So, I start to think and right away I break out the neighbour fence to push through my children and other children from the upper flat,” she said as she broke down in tears while recalling the horrific experience.
“My brother, his wife and son trapped in there, they burn to death. I don’t know what more to say,” she said.
She said that earlier in the day she had planned to go to town but decided not to, “Is a good thing I didn’t go to town ’cause I was to go to town but I said me ain’t going nowhere. My mind didn’t give me to go to town. And “Mavie” said “mommy you always saying you gotta go somewhere and you don’t want to go. Whole day the place was good. I was inside with my children all the time,” she added before blurting out “them ain’t get find up to now, Marvin them. Marvin he, girl and she son.”
Coretta also said that three youths ran in after the fire started in an attempt to save things from the fire but the smoke and falling debris prevented them from gaining entry into the house.
There were seven apartments at the complex. Corretta explained that the bottom front apartment where her brother and his family was trapped in, housed that family alone, while the three other apartments in the front housed three other families; a five person family and two couples. Coretta and her five children and husband occupied a rear apartment and the apartment next to hers was home to a woman, her four children and grandson. There was another apartment where another woman lived and one other occupied by a nurse, who lived alone.
The tenant from the apartment next to the deceased family’s, Sonia Allen, explained that she has been living at the now burnt building with her three daughters and husband for almost two months. She said she was unaware of the fire until she returned home. “I don’t know, I just came home and see this,” she said. She was dressed in a guard’s uniform as it was apparent that she was at work when the fire started. She noted that while her children and husband were safe, they are currently unsure of where they would be spending the night. All their belongings were destroyed by the fire. (Persons interested in assisting Allen can reach her at 666-7141.)
