“Everything gone” – Berbice single mother after fire destroys home

A Glasgow Village, East Bank Berbice (EBB), Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) family has been left homeless after a fire, believed to have been deliberately set, destroyed their two-storey home on Tuesday morning, displacing a single mother and her seven children and leaving them to once again rebuild after years of struggle. The blaze, which occurred around 10:00h, engulfed the wooden and concrete structure before firefighters could bring it under control. Two fire tenders responded from New Amsterdam, but by the time they arrived, the building was already ablaze. For 45-year-old Trisha Williams, a constable attached to the New Amsterdam Mayor and Town Council, the ordeal began while she was at work.

“I wasn’t at home. I leave to go to work and as I reach the work and I put on my bag, I get a phone call and it’s a teacher from my daughter’s school…she said I guess I see some burning going on over there and I guess it’s your house. So, I cut off the call and I get the next call right after that a friend called me and then she told me to come quick that my house is on fire,” she recalled. “When I came, I couldn’t even reach to the house. I had to stay in front by the shop because the fire was already big,” she said. The fire destroyed virtually everything inside the home, including appliances, furniture and important personal documents.
“Everything gone… furniture, fridge, freezer… even important things like passport and birth certificate, we ain’t get nothing out,” the distraught mother explained.
Williams, who has been living at the location for more than 25 years, said she had spent years working to build and gradually improve the home. After losing her house in a previous fire between 2005 and 2006, she was assisted by the charitable organisation Food For the Poor to rebuild a modest structure. Over time, through her own efforts, she expanded and upgraded the house to accommodate her growing family. That progress, she said, has now been wiped out.

“It is not an easy task. From ever since I know myself, I try my best to make the children comfortable and send them to school,” she added.
The mother also faces the added challenge of caring for a child who is wheelchair-bound and requires constant attention.
“My last son is not well, he uses a wheelchair… so I always have to be focused on him,” she said. At the time of the fire, one of her sons was at home. According to Williams, the young man has a history of mental instability.
She confirmed that the son has since been taken into custody and is currently at a mental health facility. Now displaced, Williams and her children are temporarily staying elsewhere, but she says the situation is far from sustainable.
“Living by somebody else, I really can’t cope… I just trying to get myself together again,” she explained. The single mother, who works as a constable with the local council and has spent nearly a decade on the job, is now appealing for public assistance as she attempts to rebuild yet again.
“Whatever assistance I can get, I would be grateful… just to help me get back on my feet,” she said.
Persons wishing to offer assistance can contact Williams on telephone (592) 645-5725.