Sugar worker jumps to safety as fire guts home

A 43-year-old sugar worker attached to the Albion Sugar Estate is now homeless after an early morning fire destroyed the house he occupied in Albion Village on Tuesday. Faiam Ali reportedly escaped by jumping through a window as flames rapidly engulfed the wooden structure at about 04:00h, while neighbours rushed out of their homes in an attempt to save him and contain the blaze. Ali, who lives alone in the house, is said to have smelt smoke before discovering that the back section of the building was already on fire. According to neighbours, the blaze appeared to have started in the kitchen area and quickly spread throughout the structure. Anita Ramphal, who lives a few houses away, said she was awakened by Ali’s calls for help. “He called me about four o’clock and said, ‘Bardi, come help me, I see the fire.’ When I peeped through the window, I saw the flames, and I started waking up everybody in the village,” Ramphal recounted.

She explained that residents immediately mobilised, grabbing buckets and forming a line in an effort to douse the flames. “People come out with buckets and water, and we try, but it didn’t work out. He had to jump through the window into the shed to save himself,” she added. Another resident, Bhimwattie Sahid, said, “…we hear screaming and when we run out, the back of the house was already on fire. The kitchen area was burning, and in half an hour the whole place gone.” “The boy ain’t got nobody – no mother, no father, no brother, no sister. He left with nothing, and I really hope somebody could look into helping him get back a little shelter,” she said. Residents also indicated that an estate fire tender was contacted, but despite efforts to respond, the building was already extensively damaged by the time additional assistance arrived. Ali is described by neighbours as a quiet and hard-working individual. The cause of the fire has not yet been confirmed.