Nine members of an Amelia’s Ward family, including three adults and six children, are now homeless as a result of a fire which gutted their two-storey home.
Reports are the fire started at about 19:30h on Monday evening at the Lot 119 Self Help Housing Scheme, Mackenzie, Linden house which belonged to 51-year-old Dylon Lampkan.
The badly damaged house in Mackenzie, Linden
Guyana Times was told that the fire was started by a 24-year-old mentally unstable relative, who lived in the upper flat of the house, after he allegedly lit a mattress while playing with a box of matches.
At the time of the incident, most of the occupants were at home but were only able to save a few items since the fire spread quickly.
Neighbours summoned firefighters but the ranks experienced difficulties in finding the location and as a result the damage was extensive. Nonetheless, they eventually arrived and managed to get the fire under control. When this publication visited the scene on Monday evening, the distraught occupants were observed standing outside the yard as neighbours looked on in horror. One of the distraught occupants, a 17-year-old student of Linden Foundation Secondary school, who will be writing the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations next year, told this newspaper that he lost everything in the fire, including his laptop and School-Based Assessments (SBAs). On Monday evening, the family of nine – with the youngest being three years old – was left to contemplate their next move and were in the process of arranging temporary accommodation.
