A family of four of Lot 10 Middle Dam, Unity Village, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara, is now homeless after a fire destroyed their home on Monday evening.
Reports are a five-year-old child was playing with matches which resulted in a chair catching fire. The entire house soon went up in flames.
According to reports, the fire started at about 18:45h and quickly engulfed the two-storey wooden house in which two children – ages five and six –were left alone as their parents ventured to a nearby shop.
The destroyed house
Amanda (only name given), the neighbour who rescued the children, related to this publication that she heard the children screaming at about 19:00h and on inspecting, saw the fire spreading in the house. She related that she then shouted for the parents of the children but got no answer. She related that she then rushed to rescue the children.
“The door was locked from outside so I had to open it from outside to let them out, the two children was home alone in the house. The parents god knows where they were but this is not one time two time, this is regular. Regularly they leave them unattended home alone,” she added.
Amanda further related that after rescuing the children they summoned the fire service, but the response was a little too late to save the house. However, she stated that they were able to save the nearby houses from being seriously damaged.
Meanwhile, the father of the children, 27-year-old Ramzan Hussain, on Tuesday told Guyana Times he has been renting the house for the past three years and he along with his wife had just ventured to a nearby shop when the fire started.
“I got a call at around 7pm telling us the house was on fire. I don’t know exactly what happened, just that the kids was in the house and they was doing their work and one of them was playing with matches. The kids were home alone at that time. We were at the shop purchasing water,” he said.
He explained that after he received the call he immediately rushed home to check on the children and saw the house engulfed in flames.
“I came and the whole house was on fire, the children were rescued by the back house neighbour. There was nothing much we could do and same time the Police them come and they asked for us and questioned us and then we had to leave with them and go to the station,” Hussain added.
When asked whether he regularly leaves his children unattended, the man explained that he and his wife would often venture to the shop while the children remained home doing homework or playing. He further stated that he would never deliberately leave his children in harm’s way.
The family estimates their losses to be in the millions since everything, except the clothing they were wearing, was destroyed. Hussain related that they are staying with relatives until they can afford to get another house.
Investigations into the incident are ongoing.
