The fire which gutted two houses at Bushlot Village, West Coast Berbice last Thursday evening leaving seven people homeless was an act of arson, the Head of the Fire Service in Region Five and Six, Kirkland Harry confirmed yesterday.
Residents had told Stabroek News that the Bushlot fire first started at an unoccupied house belonging to an overseas-based family. However, it quickly spread next door to a two-storey wooden and concrete house which was occupied by a 79-year-old woman and her three grandchildren along with tenants – a family of three in the lower flat.
Seventeen-year-old Bibi Isahack had explained that she was fast asleep when her brothers woke her up just around midnight rushing her to wake their grandmother to leave the premises immediately.
She had said that she quickly got up and noticed that the house behind them was completely engulfed in flames. “Me hold grandma hand and me run down the steps and me watch back for me big brother and lil brother and them been deh behind a we.”
According to Isahack, she was extremely confused in that moment as they quickly began experiencing a strong heat. “Me forget the girl living downstairs and when me remember me start pound the door and start holla for she and tell she to come out the house and she run out.”
Isahack stressed that at that stage the fire had not caught on to their house but moments after the fire service arrived the fire spread to the “curtains (that) hang on we back veranda and deh so it start catch.”
When contacted yesterday, Harry said that it has since been discovered that the fire was maliciously set on the unoccupied house, stressing that the investigation is still ongoing.
The young woman and her family along with residents on Friday said that they believe that the fire service failed them on Thursday evening. They all believe that had the firefighters gone into action immediately and had a functioning pump then their house could have been saved.
“The fire went on the veranda and them spray lil water from the zinc and the water finish and then we house start catch a fire on the wood itself at the back and them just stood there and watch and persons were shouting at them to use the trench water”, she said.
A baffled Isahack said that although residents pleaded with the firefighters to use the water from the trench they refused to get into the trench. “We beg them, them people beg them to use the trench water… We had to really beg them.”
However, two male villagers then offered to get into the trench to assist the situation. “Them two-man (villagers) start digging underneath the mud to place the pump.” But at that stage the villagers were informed that the pump was not working as such there was no access to water to put out the fire.
A fire tender from New Amsterdam in Region Six eventually responded and extinguished the blaze but at that time the two houses were already completely destroyed.
Questioned about this yesterday, Harry said that the issue of a non-functioning pump was not reported to him by the fire officer nor the victims although he had visited the location.
When asked what led to the tender from Region Six having to respond to put out the fire, Harry said that there was an issue sourcing the water as according to him the water in the trench was “too low.”
