Eleven people are now homeless after fire destroyed the two houses they had occupied at Angoy’s Avenue in New Amsterdam, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) on Wednesday.
Speaking with reporters following the fire, Rudolph Majeet disclosed that, at about 08:30h, he was at home in his hammock while his wife was sitting in a chair when they heard a crackling sound, and they initially thought it was dry grass burning. They went into the house to ensure that everything was okay, only to be greeted with the blazing fire.
“When I run upstairs, the whole house catch afire! I run down and tell me wife, and I hussle fuh a bucket a water, but the water couldn’t even ah do…The fire take place so fast that we couldn’t even save anything!” Majeet related.
The New Amsterdam Fire Station was contacted, but by the time firefighters arrived on the scene, the houses at Lot 671 and 672 Angoy’s Avenue were already destroyed.
The houses engulfed in fire
According to Majeet, he was occupying the two-bedroom wooden house at Lot 671 with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren, while his daughter, her husband and their two children were occupying the house at Lot 672. Majeet, a carpenter, said by the time the Guyana Fire Service arrived, the house had already been destroyed.
“My house was a 20×14 two-storey building, and we had a little business doing. We lost everything,” he said as he spoke about his two-bedroom house from which he operated a community grocery shop. The fire, according to the carpenter, also burnt the money he had saved. Both families have said they lost everything, and are now homeless.
Persons desirous of making contact with Majeet can do so by telephone number (592) 643-9503.
Meanwhile, Divisional Fire Officer Kirkland Harry has said the fire resulted from persons stealing electricity.
He said the Fire Department cannot stop persons from stealing electricity, but also used the opportunity to advise persons to desist from lightning fires to burn garbage, noting the possible dangers of fire in the current dry spell.
