Elderly woman and children trapped as house collapses

A one-bedroom house came crashing down on Sunday leaving a pensioner, a pregnant woman, and a one- and 10-year-old homeless.
Eighty-nine-year-old Gladys Fraser, her granddaughter and two great-grandchildren lived in the house at Lot 131 Third Street, Alness Village, Corentyne.

Fraser told Guyana Times that she was resting in her bedroom when she suddenly heard a strange sound. “Me lie down and something tell me get up, so Ah sit down. Then Ah hear something go crook, crook, crook, braps… meh seh dis child dead because the wardrobe was next to she,” Fraser said, referring to her three months pregnant granddaughter.
The two great-grandchildren made it safely out of the building, while the pregnant woman was later found unhurt.
“It was around half past five to six. I say thank you to Jesus it did not fall in the night; Ah don’t know what would have happen to my life. People run an come and me grandson pull me out; he had to break out the wall and hoist me out,” the woman explained.
According to Fraser, there were no high winds at the time, but the five-foot posts on which the house stood may have collapsed.
In tears, she said she now would stay with a grandson who lives behind the spot where her house once stood. “Ah get a room, but you know you own is you own,” she said.
The pensioner is asking for the public’s assistance, as all of her belongings are now being stored under a house. These include a refrigerator, a chair set, beds and other household items. “They clean the place an nobody ain’t even come fo search dem board fo see wha good from wha na good.”
Persons willing to assist can contact Fraser’s granddaughter, Althea on 675-2038.