By Subhana Shiwmangal
A fire that was electrical in nature yesterday afternoon completely destroyed two houses and damaged another at Covent Garden, East Bank Demerara leaving 11 persons including children, homeless.
According to the neighbours, the fire started around 12 pm after a fuse box overloaded and caught fire. The two families that were affected told this newspaper that they lost everything, including their money, documents, cars, and children’s school uniforms. Another house that was close to the destroyed buildings was partially damaged.
Chief Fire Officer of the Guyana Fire Service, Gregory Wickham, told Stabroek News via telephone yesterday that around 12:37 pm, firefighters responded to a blaze at Covent Garden and three fire tenders were utilised. He disclosed that the fire was electrical in nature and two wooden and concrete buildings were completely destroyed while another was damaged.
A devastated Jennifer Persaud, who resided at 99 Covent Garden, the house where the fire originated, told this newspaper yesterday that around 12 pm she was downstairs when her son alerted her that there was a fire upstairs. She immediately ran upstairs and saw that the fuse box was on fire and her 13-year-old son ran downstairs for water with the intention to putting out the fire, but before he could do that, the fire started to spread quickly. She recounted that she couldn’t do anything and started to shout to alert the neighbours that there was a fire and for them to call the fire service. She said she grabbed her 2-year-old baby and ran out of the house along with her two sons.