A fire, suspected to be electrical in origin, gutted a section of a two-storey house at Bagotstown, East Bank Demerara on Saturday morning, leaving a family displaced.
Up to yesterday an extended family of nine persons occupied the Lot 3 Public Road, Bagotstown, East Bank Demerara house, which is situated on the same property as the Med X Pharmacy, next door to the Ray’s Auto Spares.
The fire reportedly started at about 10.15 am
“We are homeless now. We ain’t got nothing,” said a teary eyed Maneer Khan, who resided in the house with his extended family.
Khan was unsure of where they would stay now in wake of the damage done by the fire, which gutted the top storey of the house. At the time he was not certain about the extent of the damage done to the lower storey.
He and his family have been renting the two-storey concrete structure for several months. He and his wife along with his cousin and his wife occupy the two-bedroom lower flat. The two-bedroom upper flat, which was gutted, was occupied by his son and his pregnant daughter-in-law, who have a young son, and his cousins’ children.
Khan explained that the house is currently undergoing repairs and on Friday night the wiring was being done. The wiring was supposedly secured and the work was due to be continued with the remainder of the repairs. He said the fire started in a room at the southern side of the upper flat and he suspects that an exposed wire may have burnt the ceiling, which started to melt, before falling on to a mattress.
He was at home awaiting lunch from his wife when the fire started. A relative who was heading up the stairs saw the roof on fire and alerted the rest of the family. Unfortunately, one of Khan’s nieces, both of whom were sleeping in one of the rooms upstairs, was injured while trying to get out. Khan said she was awakened by the alarms and when she tried to get out of the room, the flames burned her on one of her forearms and one of her legs. She was taken to the hospital after being treated by medics at the scene.
“The whole upstairs burn. Everything gone. We get to bring out the stuff from downstairs but everything gone. We didn’t get to go inside to see how far the fire reach,” Khan said when asked about the damage. He said the furniture as well as money that was stashed in the upper flat had burned.
The man also noted that neighbours, once alerted, all gathered with hoses to help with fighting the fire and during that time the fire service arrived and was able to extinguish it. He pointed out that his neighbours hoses couldn’t put out the fire and he was grateful for the quick response by the fire service. He said that his family was able to remove some of the furniture from the lower flat but they haven’t been able to see what was saved.
When Sunday Stabroek arrived at the scene, the Guyana Fire Service had already extinguished the fire, although smoke was still emanating from the building. Three tenders and an ambulance had been deployed to the scene. A small crowd of residents gathered and were assisting the persons affected, while others were discussing the unfortunate event.
Bystanders also commended the fire service for its quick response and putting out the fire.
