Tragedy struck a Williamsburg, Corentyne family yesterday morning after a pastor was trapped and killed in a fire that completely destroyed his two-storey concrete and wooden house.
Dead is Herman Pereira, 64, a pastor and businessman of Lot 11 A Williamsburg Village, Corentyne.
The fire started around 7. 15 am yesterday and gutted the entire house. Pereira was trapped inside and made several attempts to escape but was unable to do so, residents said, after which they heard sections of the first floor collapse.
Pereira occupied the building with his wife, Patricia Pereira, 62; his children Tamika Pereira, a teacher; Shawn Pereira, a businessman; Tonya Pereira and his grandchildren Nehemiah Marks, 5, and Josh Marks, 2.
The pastor’s wife yesterday told investigators that she left her husband sitting in a chair in the dining hall and she and her two grandsons went to the lower flat where she left them in the yard playing while she remained in the hammock watching them for some time.
She then went upstairs where she saw smoke emanating from the northern wall in the vicinity of an air conditioning unit and subsequently heard her daughter Tanya shouting “fire!”
The Guyana Fire Service in a statement yesterday revealed that the blaze was caused as a result of the overheating of an AC conductor which ignited nearby combustibles and spread throughout the building.
The pastor’s son, Shawn Pereira, 28, explained that he had just returned from a run and was downstairs with his mother and her two grandchildren when shortly after the fire was discovered in the upper flat of the building where his father and sister was at the time.
“She (mother) was going upstairs and I went in the hammock”, he said, while adding that his mother was walking up the stairs when she suddenly began screaming for him, “and I tell her go downstairs and I call my sister and I see she run through the door and I look inside but it was too black and dark so I couldn’t see nobody, my dad.”
The devastated man noted that at that stage he had not realized that his father might have been trapped in the house. However, shortly after they could not find his father, and their worst fears were confirmed – the man was trapped in the burning building.
Shawn and others present made several attempts to put out the blaze before the fire service arrived but it quickly engulfed the entire building destroying everything in its path.
After the firemen were able to gain access to the building they noticed Pereira’s badly burnt body lying motionless in the dining hall. He was then picked up and rushed to Port Mourant Public Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Pastor Pereira, a father of six, was described as a kind and helpful person. His son relayed that he was a father figure to several of his friends.
