Neville Nixon and his family were left homeless last night after a fire of unknown origin ravaged their two-bedroom wooden home at Bagotstown.

The house located next door to the Gourmet Deli at Bagotstown, East Bank Demerara was empty at the time of the incident. A distressed Nixon told Stabroek News last night that he has suffered a loss of approximately $2 million.

“Everything I owned,” the distressed man said, “was in my house… all my electrical appliances, our clothes… everything me and my family had.”

Nixon’s house stood behind two others in the Bagotstown yard. He told this newspaper that he, his wife and daughter were out at the time. The man said he was sitting at “the front yard” some time after 8 pm when he was alerted that his house was on fire.

When Stabroek News visited the scene after 9 pm the flames had long since been doused but fire ranks were still present carrying out investigations. Nixon, visibly upset, said that he believes his home was torched by someone. A few people “around the area”, according to Nixon, had “long standing problems” with him.

“I was sitting right in front the yard working and if my house had gradually caught a fire I woulda smell the smoke,” Nixon insisted. “One minute there was nothing and the next minute my whole house was covered in flames.”

The fire service was immediately summoned after the cry for fire was sounded, but could do nothing to save Nixon’s house.

“I had to watch it burn,” Nixon said. “By the time the fire service get here all they coulda do was put the fire out so it wouldn’t spread.”