Children escape as faulty electrical wiring triggers fire at children’s centre

Several persons, including children on Thursday morning escaped unhurt after a fire erupted at the Family and Children Centre at Plum Park, Sophia, Greater Georgetown.
Reports are that the fire started at around 10:24h at the building, which is owned by the Human Services and Social Security Ministry.
After the blaze was extinguished, the Guyana Fire Service revealed that the fire is believed to have been caused by faulty electrical wiring installation, which resulted in arcing and sparking, subsequently igniting nearby combustible materials.

The GFS said that when firefighters arrived at the scene, they observed that the top floor’s northwestern side was engulfed in flames and smoke.
According to eyewitness Vannessa Nurse, who was in close proximity to the fire, there were some setbacks in extinguishing the fire.
Nevertheless, Nurse lauded the fact that the firemen successfully evacuated persons from the burning building.
“Well, they had already gotten the children out of the building for their safety’s sake. They need to be more active with how they are acting with fires and so forth, because they take a bit long even before they out the fire, as for the hose they had to put the hose in the trench before they got some water,” she relayed.
Another eyewitness, Romana La Rose spoke with the media and “I see the smoke and I holler for me husband and I tell he call the fire people let them out the fire because remember we have children in there. He try to call and that is all I saw for the morning when I see the big smoke,” she told reporters.
“…when I holler, I see all them children done pack up outside and I was glad because you know is children and I feel little more better when I hear that,” she added.
By the time the blaze was extinguished, the top floor of the building was severely damaged, while the ground floor suffered severe water damage. (G2)