Fifteen persons are now homeless after fire destroyed their Section C Corriverton two-storey wooden house on Thursday afternoon.
Among those homeless are six children under the age of eight. The fire completely destroyed the building located at Lot 56 Section C, Corriverton.
Kulcharran Prashad, who had been living at the building for the past 30 years, told Guyana Times that the fire started around 13:00h.
According to Prashad, an electric spark occurred at the point where the wire from the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) service line connects with the line taking power to their home.
The fire quickly spread through the building
“They had a blind hanging down at that window and the wire this side spark down there and the fire run up the wire and catch in the blind and the house start to burn,” the man, who works in the fishing industry repairing damaged fishing nets, told this newspaper.
The 56-year-old lived with his wife and four children and one daughter-in-law and five grandchildren along with their daughter-in-law’s sister and baby.
His daughter-in-law, Kathy Augustus, 24, told this publication that she was cooking when the fire started.
Six children are among the homeless
She said all five of her children were in the house and she alerted her husband, who told the kids to get out of the house.
“We had five barrels with the children’s clothes and everything all burn up. We whole house bun. Is people give them the clothes they wearing; all their school things burn up,” the mother of five bemoaned.
Her sister, 19-year-old Aliyah was putting her one-year-old baby to sleep at the time. She said no one could have saved anything.
According to the teenage mother, by the time they got everyone out of the burning building, the flames had reached the roof in the back part of the building.
Neighbours formed a bucket brigade, but the strong breeze coming in from the Atlantic forced the flames across the wooden building within minutes.
The Corriverton Fire Service responded and using water from the Corentyne River, was able to prevent the flames from spreading to other buildings.
Prashad explained that the firefighters took some time before they could access water from the Corentyne River.
“They had a pump that wasn’t working properly that they pump the water with,” he said.
Prashad said he and his family spent the night at a vacant building next door to his house. He said the owners who live overseas were informed and have since asked him to remove.
Anyone who wishes to assist the family is asked to make contact on (592)-339-3139. (G4)
