The Cummings Lodge fire that claimed the lives of a family of three on Saturday also left 28 persons homeless.
The bodies of Dawall Ifill, 14, his mother Beverly Miller, 40, and his step-father Martin Lewis, 46, were discovered after firefighters were finally able to put out the blaze at the apartment complex at Sixth Street, Cummings Lodge. Miller was said to have been a janitor at the Georgetown Public Hospi-tal while Lewis worked in the interior.
A suspect is in custody after tenants reported that the fire was deliberately set.
When this newspaper returned to the scene of the inferno yesterday, smoke was still emanating from the wreckage. Several neighbours said they were not home when the fire began and by the time they arrived, the building was already on fire. One neighbour, who arrived after the fire, allowed a family of four to stay in a nearby house he owned but by yesterday morning the family had already left in search of somewhere else to stay. The man was unable to identify the family to this newspaper noting that all he did was provide shelter for the night.
One of the tenants, Leon Richmond, 62, had occupied a two-bedroom apartment at the side of the building in the upper flat along with his reputed wife, Desiree Miller, her four children, a grandson, her niece, as well as a nephew. The nephew is the son of the deceased woman, Beverly, who is also Desiree’s sister. The family of nine lived in the apartment for almost three years.
According to Richmond, who is an electrical contractor, he had earlier Saturday afternoon gone to Sophia to do a job. He recalled that while he was in the vicinity of the University of Guyana on his way back home, he saw thick black smoke rising from the direction where he lived. At the time, he thought it was someone burning tyres but as he got closer, he saw the apartment complex on fire.
When he arrived at the scene, only Beverly’s apartment downstairs and the apartment directly above, both of which were situated at the front of the house, were on fire. Richmond said that he could not recall the time he arrived at the location but remembered that the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) had not yet arrived. He recounted dropping his bicycle and tool bag at the front of the building and hurriedly joining the bucket brigade. Richmond said he tried to get a water pump to work but the fire had already burnt electrical wires leading to the building leaving them without electricity. Realising this, the man said he went for his generator to power the pump but the power plant would not start.
By this time, the fire service arrived, which Richmond said was about 20 minutes after he had gotten there. He said that the fire truck did not have enough water and had to get water from almost two blocks away. The lack of water, he said, was the main reason the fire was not brought under control. Richmond said that he was the last person to leave the yard and did so by scaling the fence at the backyard as he was unable to return the way he entered.
Screaming
Asked whether he heard any of the now dead persons calling for help, Richmond said that all was quiet by the time he arrived but he heard from persons who were there prior to him that Beverly and her family were crying for help before falling silent. Lewis’ sister Coretta Woolford, he recalled, was screaming for help when he got there.
A former soldier, Richmond said his military skills kicked in and instead of panicking, he was able to help others who were in the yard at the time to get out.
“At the time the fire service was trying access water, the building went up in flames. The gas cylinders them fire off at random. All you hear was boom, boom…Once they extinguished the fires, one of the officers call me and asked me to identify which apartment Beverly them live in. When we found them, they were huddled together, the mother and son. The son was in the middle; the stepfather’s hand was on the boy’s hand,” he recounted.
At the time of the fire, Richmond related, Desiree was in the city while her children were at home. He said that it was relayed to him by the children that they were speaking with their aunt Beverly only minutes before and had gone upstairs and upon returning, they noticed fire emanating from the top and bottom of the building. “They said that the stepfather [Martin Lewis] was heard telling the boy ‘Come leh we try to run out through the fire’ but Beverly said no because she probably thought the fire would have come under control and they would have been saved. If when I had reach they had tell me they didn’t seeing them aunt, I would have tried to cut the grills on the window because I had the tools upstairs in my apartment but instead I was busy trying to out the fire…but all damaged in the fire,” the man said.
Richmond said he is unable to estimate how much he and his family lost to the fire. He pointed out that they lost a fridge, among other appliances, as well as six laptops. Two of the computers belonged to him, and in one of the pouches, he kept their rent money. The man said they had an outstanding four months’ rent. His wife had earlier on Saturday collected her ‘box hand’ money and after buying groceries had put the rest in the wardrobe, which was also burnt in the fire. He was only able to save his generator and his pressure pump.
The police have since arrested the grandson of the deceased owner of the house. The man lived in a neighbouring yard. Richmond said that according to other tenants, the young man – said to be in his twenties – was under the influence of alcohol and had turned up to collect rent from another tenant but ended up in an argument. He allegedly was seen going into the apartment situated directly above Beverly’s apartment where no one lived but which belonged to his deceased grandmother and owner of the building. Some minutes later, flames were seen coming from the unoccupied apartment as well as from Beverly’s apartment.
According to Richmond, there is an ongoing matter at the court where the youngest son of the deceased owner had allegedly sold the property unbeknownst to his other siblings, which led to a family feud. It was said that both parties, the seller and buyer, had reached an agreement to repay the money. Richmond noted that he and the other tenants would pay their rents to the older son of the deceased owner who had travelled out of the country on holiday but was stuck in the US as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the man’s son, who is also the suspect, collecting the rent monies.
However, Richmond said, owing to the young man’s arrogant nature and the fact that neither he nor any other tenants were given receipts, he had decided to pay the landlord the monies when he returned which, he said, was agreed to between him and the landlord.
Inconsolable
On the parapet in front of the wreckage was a stall where Woolford sold plantain chips. The plastic that provided shade had melted from the heat. The woman, who operated as a vendor at the National Park, had relocated to selling chips in front of her home after the park was one of the many public places closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Stabroek News located Woolford, she was seeking shelter at a house owned by the father of her children several communities away. At the time of the fire, she, along with five children, ages 1 year 7 months to 12 years old, and a 13-year-old niece, occupied an apartment in the building.
She was inconsolable over the death of her brother asking why he had to die that way. Woolford explained that Lewis stayed mostly in the interior and should have been back there already but a delay with the boat was the reason he was in the city at the time of the fire.
Woolford lived in an apartment in the lower flat of the building. At the time of the fire, she said, she was out on the road with her daughter. “Yesterday, I go outside about minutes to five and I send my daughter to the supermarket to get a juice. When she come back with the juice, I told her to take the juice and put it in the fridge. When she come back out on the road, I said ‘You know what, I feel like eating an ice cream, go and buy an ice cream’ but she come back and say the supermarket close; this was at 5:24pm,” she recounted.
“Me and she start gaffing about getting the business a little bigger until we ready to go back to the park and in the height of we gaffing, I hear me brother and his girlfriend screaming. I thought is something happen to one of me children so when I run in, is the whole front of their doorway to the top front of the house on fire. They had a mattress in front of the house inside and a chair. They couldn’t have manage to come out of the fire. Everybody just rushing with water to see how we could save but as fast as we throw the water, this fire start to blaze more. After my brother hold his stepson hand to run through the fire but Beverly hold him back and tell he, he can’t do that and they run into the room and lock up and they start hollering for help,” the woman recalled.
Woolford said that the entire building was grilled and while persons were trying to break the grill at the front of the house to get the family out, the shed at the front of the building collapsed.
“I was made to understand that the grandson [of the deceased owner] went to a tenant for rent and I don’t know what misunderstanding they had but the tenant say that he [the grandson] went up to the apartment upstairs. The girl [the tenant] said that a few minutes after she hear screaming. When she look the whole place is in smoke and fire,” Woolford recalled.
The vendor said that by the time she rushed in, she was only able to get her daughter and baby out of the apartment. “Everything I lost in this fire. I can’t even believe that up top of this house take less than half an hour to burn right down,” she cried.
The woman said that the suspect who is now in custody had tried to assault her because she related to the police that the tenants believed that he was the one responsible for starting the fire. “The next door neighbour also said they see the fire from upstairs.”
The suspect, Woolford said, is always causing a problem with tenants. She related that when one tenant said they didn’t do any business with him and preferred to pay the rent to his father, he took away the water pump that provided water to persons living in the upper flat of the building.
Meanwhile, Woolford said that several young men who ran in to help the tenants while the building was engulfed in flames also looted phones, among other things.
Ruth Collins, who lives next door to the apartment complex, said she was not at home at the time of the fire and arrived when the building was already engulfed in flames. She recalled the tenants scaling the fence to safety.
Meanwhile, another neighbour recounted seeing the building on fire and didn’t realise that a family was trapped inside until she heard a fireman saying so. She said that she heard “noise” coming from the building but added that it was customary to hear noises coming from the apartment. By the time she looked out, the building was engulfed in flames already. “Then the fire attendants, they came and they didn’t have water because they had just finish putting out a fire in Sophia I heard. They worked fast but I don’t think they could have really save anything there,” the woman said.
The flames were doused by firefighters at around 7pm on Saturday. The origin of the fire is still unknown.
Persons wishing to assist Woolford can reach her at 670 7577 or Richmond at 669 3873.
