Nurse, 2 children homeless after fire destroys home

A nurse and her two children are homeless after a fire destroyed their home at Rose Hall Town, Corentyne, Berbice on Sunday morning.
The home was a wooden structure situated at Lot 257 Fourth Street, Rose Hall Town, Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
The nurse, Jonnel Giddings who is attached to the Whim Health Centre, explained that
she had gone out on Saturday evening and had left her two children, aged one and six, with relatives. At about 01:00h, a friend showed her a video of her house on fire, and after making a phone call which confirmed that the house was indeed hers, she had rushed home.
“When I reach, the house was already gutted, and the Fire Service was here and other persons from the community,” she said.
The building was owned by an overseas-based Guyanese, and Giddings had been a tenant therein for the past four years.
She detailed that all her belongings and those of her children have been destroyed by the fire.

“Everything that a home was supposed to have was destroyed. Things like normal living room settee and so on; television, refrigerator… just everything that a home supposed to have was destroyed,” she explained.
According to Giddings, before she left home on Saturday evening, she had powered off one of her fans.
“And then I cut off (power to) the TV and walked out of the house. I did not take off the light, because I was going out. I did not cook on Saturday because I don’t cook on Saturdays,” the woman said in tears.
Giddings, who also rears chickens, said she would usually go to the market to sell the birds on Saturdays.
She estimates her losses at around $700,000, noting that she also had $90,000 at home at the time.
Her aim, she said, is to get back on her feet, and she is reaching out to the public for help. She can be contacted on telephone number (592) 669-4752. (G4)