One dead, 1 homeless as Port Mourant fire flattens two houses

A Berbice man is now dead while a pensioner is homeless after a fire destroyed two houses at Managers’ Quarters, Port Mourant, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) on Tuesday night.
Dead is 43-year-old Tookant Deokharan, a teacher at the Berbice Islamic School. He had lived alone in this one-storey building which was owned by an overseas-based Guyanese.

Tuesday night’s fire also destroyed a two-storey building owned and occupied by 75-year-old Amina Bacchus, leaving the pensioner homeless. Residents said flames were initially seen coming from Deokharan’s home at about 22:00h.
In a release, the Guyana Fire Service said it was alerted to the fire at 22:17h, and two water tenders and seven firefighters were deployed in what took about two hours to bring the blaze under control.
Safraj Bicam said he was alerted by the sound coming from the burning building.
“Me see fire pour out from the house and people start to rush out, and the other neighbour, the old lady, we start to shout for she and then they go and get she out of the house… Then the firefighters come and the truck couldn’t get access to come into the street because the market stands that people get there humbug the fire truck,” this resident said.
Bicam said it took the fighters a considerable time to assemble the hose to get enough length to get to the fire.
Emmalee Duncan said she was nearby when she saw the flames lighting up the sky.
“When I come, it was just in the middle of the first house; and then it catch to the second house, and the first house eventually burn down. When I came, the fire tender was not here, they came about ten minutes after. When they came, they were trying to locate water, and then they found a hydrant by the gas station. So, they had to carry the hose that way to get the water. From the time that they came to the time they started dousing the fire, was about three-quarter of an hour; because for them to get the water was a problem, they had to carry a generator all the way to the gas station. When the second house started to burn, the water still was not there, because they had to set up the pump…everything took a lil while,” she revealed.
Eyewitnesses told this publication that after one fire tender arrived from Rose Hall Town and had difficulty accessing water from a nearby hydrant, the Albion Sugar Factory Fire Department arrived on the scene with a small unit that was able to access water and start dousing the burning buildings. Subsequently, a second tender from Rose Hall Town arrived, and they were eventually able to extinguish the flames; but not before both buildings were flattened.
The teacher’s charred remains were discovered just after midnight. It was found close to the back door, which was said to have been locked, according to one of the firefighters at the scene.
Meanwhile, Bacchus, who was rescued from her home after residents broke the lock on the door to pull her out, said it was only in November that she had renovated and repainted the interior of her house. She said there was a new washing machine which was still in the box. It was purchased along with a pressure washer which she recently purchased, and all was destroyed in the fire, along with a new flat screen television.
Deokharan, who had difficulty walking because of an injury to his right knee, had spent the day at a cousin’s home, where he had had lunch and had taken a nap before leaving to go and provide home tutoring to two 13-year-olds at Fyrish Village. He had last been seen returning home shortly after 17:00h. (G4)