Two families were rendered homeless on Thursday after a midday fire destroyed two houses at Lot 328 Fifth Field, South-East Cummings Lodge, Greater Georgetown.
The blaze commenced sometime around 12:00h and gutted two homes, which were located in the same yard. The front house was a two-storey concrete building, while the back building was a wooden structure, rented to two brothers.
The burnt remains of the two houses destroyed during the midday fire
Guyana Times understands that the fire emanated from the wooden house at the back and quickly spread onto to the front house, destroying both buildings. Only the concrete section on the ground floor of the front house was left standing after the blaze was put out.
At the time of the fire, no one was home in either of the two buildings. However, a neighbour related to this newspaper that they saw smoke coming from the back house and within 10 minutes time, the blaze engulfed the wooden structure and moved over to the front house.
“We just saw the back house on fire, we don’t know how it caught fire, but it spread to the upstairs onto the front house… Everybody tried to put out the fire, all the boys around throw water to out the fire but they couldn’t do it,” the woman explained.
The traumatised owner of the destroyed houses
She continued that by the time the fire service arrived at the scene, the two houses were already engulfed, and so they immediately went into action to contain the fire. To prevent the blaze from spreading further, the fire fighters also drenched the neighbour’s house, during which many of their belongings were destroyed by the water.
Meanwhile, Guyana Times also spoke with the owner of the two houses which were destroyed, Roopnarine Sukhram, who explained to reporters that he was at Wales, West Bank Demerara, repairing his car when he got a call from one of his daughters, who informed him that their house was on fire.
“One of the neighbours called and tell her that the house is on fire and when I come, the house done burn down and the fire service was here but they done out the fire,” he stated.
The traumatised man noted that he is not sure what might have caused the blaze but was told by neighbours that it originated from the tenants’ quarters. Sukhram and his two daughters occupied the two storey concrete house, which he said was fully furnished with all modern amenities. He estimated his loses to be somewhere around $30 million.
Meanwhile, the two tenants, one of whom is a teacher attached to the St Stanislaus College, were at the scene and appeared visibly shaken as they realised that they too lost all of their belongings. The men have been renting the property for about three years now.
This publication understands one of the brothers was at home earlier in the day and left to go pick up his daughter from school. However, at the time there was a female in the house, who disappeared after the fire.
