17 children, 5 adults homeless after 3 separate fires

Seventeen children and five adults are now homeless after fires gutted their homes.

In the first fire, two families comprising three adults and nine children lost their home after a fire of unknown origin destroyed the two-storey wooden and concrete home at Plaisance, East Coast Demerara (ECD), Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) on Monday morning.
Reports are the blaze started in a bedroom in the upper flat of the house where two children were left playing with their toys.
This newspaper was told that construction worker, Carl James, along with his reputed wife Junan Holland and their six children lived in the lower flat of the home located at Lot 1 Graham Street, Plaisance.
Meanwhile, a single mother, Shaya Quamina, and her three children resided in the upper flat of the building.
According to Holland, her husband was not at home when the fire started. She said that at about 10:20h, she was painting in her apartment when two of Quamina’s children shouted that there was a fire upstairs. Moments later, their mother came downstairs with her youngest child as she tried to escape the burning upper flat.
Holland stated that she immediately grabbed her children, and rushed outside of their home. All of her valuables along with Quamina’s belongings were left inside the burning house.
While the blaze was happening, ranks attached to the Sparendaam Police Station, ECD, received and responded to a telephone call notifying them that a house was burning in Plaisance.
This newspaper was told that at about 10:45h, the team of firefighters arrived at the scene but as a result of mechanical delays, they were unable to douse the fire.
Meanwhile, seven hours prior, a fire gutted a Novar Village, Mahaicony, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) home. The home was owned by 53-year-old Dularie Lall and her four children.
This newspaper was told that the family had retired to bed in the upper flat of their two-storey home at about 21:30h on Sunday. However, at about 03:15h Lall was awakened by intense heat.
As she woke up, she realised that the lower flat of the house was on fire. Reports are the woman grabbed her children from their slumber and rushed to safety.
However, despite attempts by firefighters, the building was gutted. This newspaper was told that Lall’s residence was without electricity.
Additionally, some 24 hours before the Mahaicony fire, a shack, which a Linden mother and her four children had been staying in, burnt to the ground.
That fire, also of unknown origin, began at about 03:20h on Sunday at Block 22 Wisroc, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice).
The home belonged to a friend of the single mother, who had offered the woman and her children shelter after the mother reportedly left an abusive relationship. (Kristen Macklingam)