A family of four is now homeless after a mysterious fire destroyed their home at Church Street, Enterprise, East Coast Demerara early Friday night. Those homeless have been identified only as “Kadda” and his niece “Priya”, along with her two young children.
According to information reaching this newspaper, the fire started in the upper flat of the two-storey wooden building at approximately 18:00h, and within minutes the entire building was destroyed, leaving just rubble.
Relatives told Guyana Times that when the fire started they were experiencing a power outage, and no one was at the house. They also reported that, since the fire, none of the residents have been home, leaving them baffled.
“Around 6:00-6:15 (pm) time, me deh in the verandah and me see like if somebody got one phone and flash the light in, but it nah look like phone and it look like the fire start catching up. Me see the flame just above the window and me had me car inside here and me done know is fire, and me bring it outside here,” a neighbour who spoke on condition of anonymity said.
“Then me start panic and me nah know if to call anybody or anything; and by that time people start seeing (and) them start saying, ‘Fire!’ and then them run come here.
“That house engulf so fast them couldn’t start do anything, a bucket brigade or anything; and them boy start focusing over here, because the fire done start, and them start soaking the wall,” the neighbour added.
Another told this publication that three men were in the area enquiring about a taxi driver called “Pumpkin”. The resident added that there seems to be something mysterious about the incident, since the same three men were in the area earlier Friday enquiring about the same person.
On Friday, at about 12:30hrs, the three men torched another home in the village as they were looking for “Pumpkin.”
It is believed that “Pumpkin” is connected to the recent deadly pirate attack on Surinamese waters, and the fire was a way of getting back at him.
When asked, a neighbour related that a taxi driver by the name of “Pumpkin” would frequent the house, but this neighbour could not say whether anyone was in the yard when the fire started.
The owner of the first house torched, 30-year-old Vickram Sookraj, recently returned from sea. His sister, Rajputtie Sookraj, who was at home at the time the house was set alight, said two men had exited a silver coloured car, entered the yard, and asked the whereabouts of one “Pumpkin”.
Rajputtie Sookraj told Guyana Times she was at home with a minor child when the men approached her and asked for the individual for whom they were looking. She responded by telling the men that no one by that name lives at that house.
She said the two men ascended the stairs leading to the upper flat of the house and one of them entered. Shortly after, they exited the premises, telling her, “I did just want to make certain that he wasn’t here.” They both re-entered the vehicle and drove away from the scene.
She noted that she had then seen smoke emanating from the building, and she quickly exited the house with the child, and the Fire Service was summoned.
The Fire Service valiantly battled the blaze, but by the time the fire was contained, the house was already destroyed.
“The thing happened so fast. I wouldn’t be able to point them out, but I know that I never saw them before,” the angry woman related.
The seaman estimates his losses to be in the millions. He notes that both he and his sister had a lot of furniture in the house. Sookraj is calling on the authorities to quickly bring the perpetrators to justice, as he and his family are now left homeless.
The Police and Fire Service are still conducting investigations.
