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.