A total of 24 persons lost their homes yesterday morning after two apartment buildings at Castello Housing Scheme, in Georgetown, were destroyed by an electrical fire.
The fire started around 11.30 and destroyed a two-storey concrete structure that housed a church and a house at Lot 75 Castello Housing Scheme, and gutted the house to the immediate south, which housed the “Soup Hut.”
According to the acting Fire Chief Kalamadeen Edoo, the fire was electrical in origin. Edoo confirmed that 24 persons occupied the two buildings.
He noted that four fire service tenders responded to a call received at 11.45 am.
A reliable source said that the fire started in the northern upper section of the building located at Lot 75, before it spread in a southern direction.
When Sunday Stabroek arrived at the scene at 12.10 pm, both structures were engulfed while firefighters were at work attempting to douse the flames. In addition to the sour tenders on the eastern and western sides of the buildings, there was an ambulance on hand.
Orin McKenzie, who lived with his father in the house where the fire originated, said that he was not at home when he got a message that the house was on fire. After he arrived at the scene he managed to remove a gas cylinder and his bag from the house but he was prevented from saving anything else as the smoke became too much.
His father was at the church when the fire started.
He further informed that they have tenants who occupy the downstairs apartment but from his understanding the fire started in his apartment.
Meanwhile, the house to the south of the apartment building was the home of three families. Lennox Jones told this newspaper that the house belongs to his brother, who lives in the United States of America and had left him as the caretaker. He said that the house is insured but they haven’t been keeping up with the insurance payments. He related that he and his two other brothers and a cousin resided there with their families.
He also said that his brother, Orin Isaacs, had been operating his shop, the Soup Hut, from the ground floor of the building.
According to Jones, he was at home when his daughter told him she was smelling something burning. He soon checked and saw smoke emanating from the neighbour’s house. He said he immediately ran over to assist the tenants who were home at the time.
After they had all evacuated the burning building, he went back to his house but his wife told him not to go back inside because here was too much smoke. The fire had spread from the church because of the strong breeze which was blowing it toward his house.
Jones had helped McKenzie remove the gas cylinder from his house and he said the man told him that something must’ve been left on in the house.
His step-daughter said that she thinks the fire could’ve been contained if the fire fighters had arrived with water because they arrived a short time after the alarm was raised but her family’s home was destroyed. She said that they didn’t remove items as they thought the firefighters would be able to prevent the fire from spreading to their home. Jones added that his electrical work supplies were also burned in the fire.
Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn was also at the scene and he told reporters that he was fairly satisfied with the performance of the fire service given the number of fires they had to respond to throughout the morning. Benn said that the fire service had to tend to fires at Melanie, East Coast Demerara, Kitty, Georgetown, and Bourda, Georgetown before being summoned to the Castello Housing Scheme. “So the challenge was keeping the units filled with water and being conceptually ready to responding to multiple fires for today,” Benn said.
