-family of four homeless
By Subhana Shiwmangal
A fire of unknown origin completely destroyed a one-storey home and business located at 24 Non-Pareil Block 12, East Coast Demerara, yesterday morning, leaving a family of four homeless and several employees jobless.
The property houses a pillow and furniture business with a storage bond that stores furniture and raw material to make pillows, including foam, and fabric, while the family resides in a back building.
According to the owner, Mohamed Ali, who occupied the building along with his wife, an infant son, and step- son, while he could not say exactly how much he lost in the fire, he had lost most of the items he had in the bond to sell and all of the items in his home. He relayed that he was not at home when the fire started but at around 9am, he received a phone call from his neighbour telling him about the fire and by the time he got to the scene, the building was already engulfed in flames. He added that his wife, one of his sons and the baby were home when the fire started. As far as he knows, the fire erupted from the home and spread to the storage bond. He added that he has no idea what caused the fire.
Mohamed’s next door neighbour, his cousin, Neisha Ali, related yesterday that she couldn’t say exactly what time the fire started, but all she heard was Mohamed’s wife screaming, “fire!” She then ran to her window to see what was going on and saw that the whole place was on fire prompting her to immediately run out of her house without stopping to take anything. She added that she is thankful that the fire was contained and did not spread to her home. Ali recalled that she saw her cousin’s employees, wife and everyone else running out of the building as well.
“We were so confused, we didn’t get time to call the fire service; the neighbours did.” Ali, along with her family, fought to save a small structure house that was at the back of her yard that had ignited from the flames next door. They successfully managed get the fire under control.
Mohamed’s father, Chuniall Puran, who resides next door as well at Lot 22 Block ‘12’ Non Pareil, told the Stabroek News that at around 9am, the workers came over and told him about the fire while he and his family were in his car about to drive out. When he looked, he saw that the fire had already started in his step son’s home. The neighbours called the fire service. He added that his washing machine and other items that were at the side of his house was destroyed by the fire, and the wall was damaged. Puran estimates his losses to be about $300,000 to $400,000.
Meanwhile, next-door neighbour, Chandrouti Jeffery, recounted that at around 9 am yesterday she saw smoke coming from the building next door and immediately called her son and told him, “the house catching fire.” He told her to get out of the house, so she along with her son and daughter-in-law hurried to get items out of their house such as important documents, refrigerator, and mattresses. Very quickly, the flames started to spread to a wooden shed at the side of their house. Her son started to wet the wall with a hose he had connected to a pump before the fire service arrived to prevent the flames from further damaging their shed. She is thankful that they did not suffer any losses.
Jeffery related bond that stores material to make pillow which includes sponges, cloth and son on she along with her daughterin-law and son who was home at the time hurried and moved their items out of their home since they were not sure if the flames would have gotten bigger. However within no time the flames started to spread to the wooden shed they have at the side of the home. Her son started to wet the shed with a hose to quelled the flames.
She added that the fire started in the family house which is located at the back and spread to the bond located which is located at the back in the same yard. She’s thankful that nothing wasn’t damaged for her as her family and her made in time in getting everything out of the home such as important documents, refrigerator, mattresses and so on.
“ We were affected by the smoke so we(family) had to get everybody outside the home. If my husband didn’t spray the wall using the pump before the fire truck came, the flames would have caught onto the wall ssnd spread to our shed. My son was in the yard in the midst of the heat spraying the fence.
Mattress, important documents, refrigerator. Thnak god nobody got hurt.
The home along with the bond was completely destroyed by the fire.
I saw the smoke and I holl
