Residents of Campbellville Housing Scheme, Georgetown, on Friday roused to smell of smoke as their neighbours’ home went up in flames due to an alleged voltage fluctuation in the area at approximately 03:30h.
When Guyana Times visited the area Friday, owners of the house, Manex and Alejandrea Powers were not available but a relative who resided there said electrical wires at the back of the house began sparking and that may have been the cause of the fire.
The relative stated that prior to this incident, the wires would spark “now and again” and they had reported it to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) which visited the area and declared nothing was wrong with the wiring.
“Three days ago, the wire start sparking and we call GPL, they come and check then when they go back they call and say everything alright. Then bout 3:30 this morning (Friday), the wire start sparking and when people run out to assist, everything gone up in the blaze. We aint get to save nothing.” She noted that no one was at home at the time of the fire.
Another neighbour of the Powers’, Debra Wilkinson told this publication that she awoke in the dark and knowing that the neighbourhood was to prone electrical fluctuations, thought nothing of it, until she was notified by another neighbour that the Powers’ home was ablaze. She said she immediately called GPL’s emergency line, but was greeted with an impolite employee.
Wilkinson said when she asked the employee to assist her in contacting the fire service, the worker refused. However, someone else called the fire service but when the fire tenders arrived no water was available. She highlighted that when a 2nd fire tender arrived with water the fire-fighters quickly managed to extinguish the blaze.
“I hear me neighbour scream Debra! Debra! Manex house on fire! So I said okay, I’m calling GPL, when I called GPL, the worker was very rude to me when I explaining to her that the high voltage and low voltage fluctuations cause the fire. I said well y’all help call the fire service and they said we don’t deal wid fire, you call yuh people. When the fire truck come, it aint had no water. We had to wait till the other one come with water. But the fire service did a good job, they put out the fire fast,” the woman recalled.
The neighbours said the instability of electricity supply has been occurring in the neighbourhood for some time, but it was during this week that it became unbearable. They voiced that though they reported the matter numerous times to GPL, there has been no tangible rectification of the problem.
It was reported that residents of the house were parents to two young children, and have not been residing at the home since the marked increase of power fluctuations.
