-faulty GPL connection suspected
By Subhana Shiwmangal
A fire apparently resulting from a faulty electric wire connection to the building, razed a two-storey wooden home at Lot 15 ‘A’ Bennet Dam, D’Edward Village, West Coast Berbice, on December 31, 2024, leaving a family of six counting their losses.
The upper flat of the home was occupied by Jane Bhagmania, 61, her husband, Mohamed Khan, 63, and their 7-year-old granddaughter. The lower flat was occupied by Zorina Khan and her two children – ages 17 and 13- who were asleep when the fire occurred. No injuries were reported.
Bhagmania told the Stabroek News that she went to another house next door to do some laundry when she smelt smoke. She looked up and saw fire on the electric wire that was connected to her upper flat. She panicked as she remembered that minutes before, she had sent her 7-year-old grandchild upstairs after she had given her a bath. She immediately screamed out for her but, not loudly enough because of a recent surgery she had done to her throat.
“I run up the stairs and the kitchen was already on fire. My granddaughter was drying her skin in the front room. The fire was in the back room… I run and start hollering for her. She nah answer, so me ah peep under the bed fuh she. And, I stamp up my foot and hollering…” She relayed that she managed to eventually rescue her granddaughter. Before the Fire Service attended, she said that neighbours helped them to form a bucket brigade to put the fire out.
Zorina, who resides with her children in the lower flat recounted, “I was sleeping in the room and my two children run out before me when they see the fire. Everything was so confusing, I was sleeping. I didn’t know anything. I hear my mother voice a little. I heard her calling for my niece to ‘run, run.’ Me seh somebody come in the yard to kill her, so I ran out with speed out of the house. Then I hear she say ‘fire, fire!’” Zorina said when she looked upstairs, she saw a huge blaze in the kitchen. She rushed back in her lower flat where she was so shaken up that she sat on her bedroom bed and pondered. Her son came in and inquired what was wrong but she did not respond. They both then rushed out of the lower flat.
Both upper and lower flats were fully furnished with household items including refrigerator, television, freezer and gas-stove. Important documents were destroyed in the fire.
Zorina said that her late husband had left her with a fully furnished home and even the laptop for the children was destroyed along with cellphones, a barrel of clothes, and other items. “$500,000 that my son worked for and give me to keep, burn up in the fire.” She stressed that there were no appliances on at the time of the fire nor was anyone was cooking. “It was only the electrical wire that was connected to the house which was connected to the bedroom. And, there is where it [fire] start and spread to the bedroom. Just the fridge went on downstairs and her [mother] freezer upstairs. Not to say anything overload or anything… God knows best and thank God for life.”
Zorina recently remarried and came to the home in November, 2024. She lamented she has lost a lot of items that were worth a lot of money along with documents. “All my documents damaged, my husband death certificate, land transport damaged as well as my parents’ documents.”
Her sister, Robeena Khan, 30, lived in a concrete bungalow attached to the side of the burnt-out home. Robeena explained that she lost a lot of household items along with a bicycle and washing machine, but thankfully her home was saved. She was unable put a cost to what she lost.
Bhagmania’s son, Feroze Khan, 36, of Patentia, also lost items, documents, and cash in the fire. He estimated his losses at about $250,000.
Bhagmania and her family have received food and other supplies from neighbours and are requesting further help from the public. They all are currently residing in a small wooden building located at the rear of the property for now.
Anyone wishing to assist the family can contact them on 707-7617.