15 homeless after fire guts Bent St house

A fire believed to have been electrical in origin left 15 persons homeless yesterday afternoon and the fire service was berated for its slow response.
The Gilliams family of Lot 61 Bent Street, Worthmanville was inconsolable; some of them came home to a house gutted. According to Trishana Green- one of the occupants, who was home at the time, “all I hear is ma aunty upstairs shouting fire”.

Green said she grabbed her baby who is about three months old and with her big brother, ran out of the house. Green lives with her brother and mother, Monica Gilliams, in the front half of the bottom flat. The two-story building is divided into three living quarters.

The remains of the Gilliams home after the fire

The fire is believed to have started around 4.30pm and according to Rockliffa Ashley, who lives right next door to the Gilliams “the men in the neighbourhood had to start outing the fire”. She said since the fire started she was calling the fire service but “the phone ring out”.

“I calling 912. Is 911 I get through on and tell them,” Ashley added. Standing in her yard as fire-fighters sprayed water on the home, Ashley said that when the fire truck eventually arrived, it had to wait some five minutes for a reserve tank since it had no water.

Gilliams family members being comforted by relatives and friends

On the way to the fire, Stabroek News observed a fire truck pumping water from a drain on Hadfield Street. However, by the time this newspaper arrived on the scene, the blaze had been put out but the charred wooden pillars of the upper flat were still smoking.

Meanwhile, Monica Gilliams, Green’s mother, could not restrain her grief when she came home to a scene of fire-fighters spraying her home.
The woman had to be restrained from entering the house. She could be heard bemoaning “me documents…me jewellery”. Monica later said that she has lost everything.
An employee of Demerara Distillers Limited, Monica said that “three times I wake up this morning fuh plug out me fridge… the current on and off, on and off”.
The upper flat of the house was occupied by Yvonne Gilliams, who is the owner of the building. Yvonne shared the upper flat with two daughters, son-in-law and grandchildren. The back of the house was occupied by Marylyn Gilliams and her son and nephew. Marylyn who works at the Bank of Guyana declined to comment. The distraught woman was trying to get into her home to save what she could but officers on the scene kept her out saying the building was not yet cleared. Yvonne meanwhile was not on the scene.