A major catastrophe was averted on Monday after a fire started at the Shaheed Girls’ Orphanage at Oleander Gardens, Ogle, East Coast Demerara.
Persons would have noticed some degree of smoke emanating from inside the building after 11:00h and immediately summoned the Guyana Fire Service. Firefighters managed to contain the blaze, resulting in little damages.
This is the second time in a few years that a fire started at the organisation. The last one would have flattened the structure.
The orphanage was completely destroyed by a fire in late October 2018. Eighteen orphans were at the facility when the fire had started in the upper flat of the wooden and concrete building after 06:00h. A caretaker was alerted by one of the children, who noticed the dense smoke emerging from a room on the western end of the building.
That inferno would have caused damages in excess of $50 million and it is even more devastating since the building was uninsured.
In August 2019, the building was reopened after months of efforts to have it rebuilt. Chief Executive Raheema Rahaman had sad that the reconstruction of the home was a huge success story after lots of obstacles and negativity.
