Six people are now homeless after a fire of unknown origin destroyed their home on Tuesday afternoon.
A couple, both employed at Rose Hall Sugar Estate in East Canje, Region Six, and their four children are the victims of Tuesday’s blaze. Imran Khan, 39, and his wife Sheena, were not at home at the time.
The razed home after the fire
According to the estate worker, he left home at about 14:30h to pick up his wife, who is a security guard for the estate. He said he took his two younger children, ages 11 and 8 years old, with him. His two teenage sons were left at home.
After picking up his wife, he did not go home but headed onto the Corentyne. He had intended to get to Rose Hall Town to purchase a new phone for himself.
“So I’m going up the Corentyne, and I get a phone call from my son that the house is on fire. So I had to turn back and come home. When I reached home, the whole house is on fire, burned out right down,” he said as he tried to hold back his tears.
“Nothing save, nothing… Everything just burned down,” Khan added.
Meanwhile, reports are that neighbours saw thick smoke coming from the upper flat of the two-story building and rushed over and realised that the two teenage boys were rocking in hammocks under the house, unaware that the building was on fire.
Initial efforts were to try to douse the fire with water, but as the neighbours made their way up the stairs, the windows to the front of the house burst open, pushing thick smoke and heat outside and forcing the ‘would-be firefighters’ to flee.
Khan said there were no electrical appliances in use on the upper flat at the time, nor could the stove have been left on.
“All cooking was done early in the morning before my wife went to work, and everything was just normal when I left the house. The only thing that is normally on in my home is the fridge for electrical thing. Only in the night dem boys does use their fan, and that’s it. All the rest of the electrical thing does cut off; just the fridge is there.”
Khan noted that the refrigerator was situated on the lower flat.
He said he has nowhere to stay currently.
The couple had been renting the house and had been living there for the past four years.
Khan said that he had recently invested in a refrigerator, a stove, and other home appliances, including a chair set.
Persons who may wish to contact Khan do so through telephone number 604-2738 or his wife via telephone number 679-5544.
