Six persons are now homeless after a fire completely destroyed their two-bedroom, two-storey home at Lot 28 Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice on Monday.
Reports are that, at about 00:30h, family members were awakened from asleep to find their home filled with smoke. At the time, those in the building were Rajwattie Persaud, 45; her husband Jairam, 49; Kumarie Jairam, 19; Nafeeza Nazam, 12; Christopher Jairam, 11; and Kishan Habibullah, two years old.
Fire flattened this two-storey building
Jairam told Guyana Times that after an alarm was raised, he got the family together and tried to get everyone out of the burning building, but they were trapped as they were all barefooted, and received burns to their feet.
“The heat coming up from the bottom and we get burn!” he explained.
As initial efforts to exit the building proved futile, he went back into his room. After a while, he broke a window on the upper flat and jumped to safety. Four of the other family members did likewise, while his wife had to take her baby with her when she jumped to safety.
Residents, meanwhile formed a bucket brigade to fight the flames, but it failed to save the building.
All six family members were taken to the Fort Wellington Hospital suffering from burns. Persaud and Kumarie were admitted as patients while the others were treated and sent away.
Swift action by the Guyana Fire Service, however, prevented two nearby houses from burning. Deputy Fire Officer for Berbice, Clive McDonald, said that upon receiving the report, the Fire Service responded promptly.
Mc Donald referred to the escape as an act of bravery, noting that Persaud jumped from the burning building with her two-year-old toddler.
Jairam and one of the children who was in the building at the time of the fire
“The first thing was to stop the fire from spreading. The fire was contained to one building,” Mc Donald said.
Damage to a building being less than ten feet away was limited to its outer rafters, while the building on the next lot received damage to the plastic guttering along one side of its roof.
“The 400 gallons of water (the GFS) came with could not be sufficient. Is immediately they went to the source, and it is there to prove, the other buildings still standing,” he added.
Residents were high in their praise for the work done by the firefighters.
Meanwhile, Jairam is now counting his losses, saying he had suffered a broken leg last year and has since not been able to work.
“Is everything ah loss! Me na get nothing! Me picknin, me wife, nobody na get nothing!” he said in his native creole dialect.
Lying in a hammock when this publication visited him, the injured man explained that he has been out of a job for the past eight months following an injury in the cane field which resulted in him suffering a broken leg.
His wife has been the family’s breadwinner, working as a part-time domestic. “Now she get burn an in hospital,” Jairam lamented.
Persons who may wish to provide urgently needed assistance to this family can contact Jairam on telephone number 619-6113. The Fire Service has launched an investigation into the fire. (Andrew Carmichael)
