NA market vendor homeless after fire destroys home

A New Amsterdam market vendor and his wife are now homeless after a fire destroyed their Maida Farm, Corentyne home on Sunday.
The mid-morning blaze was first detected on the upper flat of the two-storey building at about 09:00h.
The vendor, Asif Mohamed, who was not home at the time, told Guyana Times that he was a few houses away preparing for a religious function to observe his father’s first death anniversary when he got news of the fire.

“My wife called me and told me that the house is on fire,” the 43-year-old man stated.
According to Mohamed, from all indications, the fire would have started in the vicinity of where the main switch and fuse box are located.
“The fire like it come from upstairs, the front room where the box is because everybody was downstairs cooking.”
He explained that all the cooking for the religious function was being done at his house but at the time the fire started, no one was in the upper flat.
“By the time I get back, the whole house was flat but the fire truck was here and they did a good job.”
Mohamed said he could not estimate his losses at this time, noting that “The house had everything. My cupboard alone is over $1 million with the granite and everything. Maybe it might not look so from outside… I am not sure what the estimated value is but as I get money, I keep adding on to the house,” he added.
Meanwhile, a nearby house has received some damage as a result of the inferno. The owner’s son reportedly soaked the house and stopped the fire from spreading.
One section of the exterior of the house was damaged as well as a water tank.

It was reported that a unit from the Rose Hall Town Fire Station and one from the New Amsterdam Fire Department arrived on the scene, and while firefighters could not stop the fire from completely destroying Mohamed’s house, they were able to contain it from spreading to nearby buildings