Arsonist targets Norton St home

-car alarm alerts homeowner

An arsonist yesterday targeted a Norton Street home causing damage and endangering the lives of its occupants.

According to Odessa Willis of Lot 12 Norton Street, Werk-en-Rust, she heard her car alarm go off some time around 2.45 am and she turned it off but found it strange that it went off two more times. So she looked outside and saw a man “in a black hoodie heading out of my yard.”

The woman said, “my car was on fire but when I see the man I pulled back inside, because I was frightened.”

Odessa Willis’s car still parked where it was set alight by a hooded man some time early yesterday morning.

The distressed woman said that after the man exited her yard she opened the backdoor of her house and “threw” her eight-year-old daughter over the fence into the neighbour’s yard before trying to put the fire out.

She said that after her daughter was over at the neighbour’s she raised an alarm, by which time her home had also started to burn.

The woman said neighbours went to her rescue and they were able to put out the fire and save her home.

When Stabroek News visited the woman’s home it could be seen that the front of the building was badly scorched and the interior of her car was burnt.

The woman said that she is worried about her safety and that of her child; concerned that if she remains at her home the person may try again and as such she is contemplating leaving the country.  Willis said she owns and operates a hair salon at Orange Walk, Bourda and about a week ago she had an altercation with another young woman but could not say whether the incident stemmed from that.

She said she had been physically and verbally assaulted by the woman at her salon and to date the police are yet to charge that woman.

She also said that after making a report to the police about the torching incident they are yet to tell her about a possible motive or if they have anyone in custody and she feels that they are lackadaisical in their investigations. On Sunday last a second attempt was made to torch the home of 72-year-old Compton Burton at Lot 32 Norton Street, Wortmanville. It was foiled after a passer-by saw and raised an alarm.

Burton’s home is not far from Willis’s, but he suspects that his home was targeted as a result of an ongoing property dispute. In his case as well, the police are yet to make any arrest or find a lead in their investigations.