Minutes after a fire was doused in a Bagots-town, East Bank Demerara home, a second one erupted in a different section of the building, this time destroying the house in a matter of minutes leaving five families homeless.
Stabroek News understands that the five families comprise at least 18 persons and that the losses amount to millions of dollars.
It has not been conclusively established what caused the fire that destroyed the two-storey wooden building at Lot 6 Bagotstown yesterday afternoon but persons were adamant that it was not electrical in origin. One fire victim said they had never had any problems with the electricity supply.
An occupant, who declined to state his name, told Stabroek News that he arrived home shortly after the first fire had been extinguished and a few minutes later another alarm was sounded. This was around 2 pm, he said. He noted that both of the fires began on the lower flat but in different apartments. He said that some persons were downstairs at the time.
A family visiting from Canada only managed to save some documents and the clothes on their backs.
The occupant said the fire quickly consumed the building and almost nothing was saved; his personal losses amounted to three-quarters of a million. Some hours after the fire, families were rummaging through the debris searching for items. The intense heat from the fire had caused a water tank in a neighbouring yard to melt and nearby trees were scorched.
Following the conflagration, the families made arrangements to spend at least last night, elsewhere.
