Sheldon Baptiste and his wife are now left counting their losses after a fire, believed to be of electrical origin, destroyed their two-bedroom house at D’Urban Backlands rendering them homeless.
Sheldon Baptiste
According to information, neighbours discovered smoke emanating from the house sometime around 11:00h and immediately summoned the Guyana Fire Service.
While they awaited the arrival of the firefighters, they started a bucket brigade but were unable to save the wooden building as the fire quickly spread.
The firefighters arrived around 11:35h and immediately began accessing water from the nearby trench and started to douse the flames that had already razed the house.
Baptiste said he left for work some time about 08:30h and all of his appliances were off. The man said he was uncertain as to what may have caused the fire and was waiting on the firefighters to provide him with the cause.
Firefighters dousing the flame
“I am living here for over four years now with my wife and when I left this morning everything was off. I just come home here for lunch and when I come, then them neighbour tell me the house burn down. When I come here, I see the house done burn down. Is everything I lose, boy,” Baptiste said.
“I just buy a music set for $100,000 and I had a fridge, chair set, wardrobe and everything else. All me wife and me have right now is the clothes on we back,” he added.
Neighbours say the fire may have been electrical in origin since the community is plagued by illegal connections to the nearby GPL pole. An investigation is ongoing while the couple are contemplating their next move.
