Eighty-two-year-old Rudolph Samuel Alphanso Ross, also called ‘Bruce’, was on Monday burnt to death in an early morning fire at Kildonan, Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne). Police have since arrested the dead man’s son after he turned up at the scene carrying a bag containing his and his father’s important documents.
According to reports, the dead man and his son had occupied a two-storey
Dead: Rudolph Samuel Alphanso Ross
concrete building, from which the elder Ross was heard screaming for help at about 03:00h. A neighbour told this publication that the elderly man was seen at a bedroom window appealing for assistance as a large portion of the upper flat of his home became engulfed in flames. Ross is said to have been in a bedroom in the front of the building while the blaze was initially seen in the back part of the house. However, villagers’ efforts to get the man out of the burning building were futile, as the fire quickly engulfed the house.
“He was calling out to me for help because his son was not at home, so me and my cousin and her husband try to save him, but it was too much of heat and smoke, so we couldn’t have saved him,” one of the first responders told this publication.
Reports reaching Guyana Times indicate that a ladder was employed in rescuers’ efforts to get to the windows of the upper flat of the burning building, but when the windows were smashed open, a gush of heat made it too risky for anyone to attempt to rescue the elderly man.
The burnt house
“We couldn’t enter from the door, so we tried the bedroom window where he was, but we couldn’t make it,” responders detailed.
The fire unit that arrived on the scene from the Rose Hall Fire Station had to focus its attention on preventing the fire from spreading. Residents say the fire-fighters arrived close to one hour after the fire had initially started. “The fire spread so quickly that even if they had come from Rose Hall as soon as we see the fire, they would not have been able to save him,” one resident said.
Guyana Times understands that when the man’s body was eventually retrieved, all four limbs had been burnt to ash. The skull was, however, recognisable.
Ross had formerly been an executive officer of the Bush Lot/Adventure Village Council. He leaves to mourn six children. Six of his ten siblings are still alive. The eldest, Ivor, who celebrated his 85 birthday on Sunday, referred to the now dead man as being one whom persons looked up to in the community.
He referred to his brother as being an intelligent man in his younger days; one who had always been “well spoken.” Police are initially treating this incident as a fire of unknown origin, but await a report from the forensic fire investigators.
