A fire of unknown origin yesterday destroyed a Nabaclis, East Coast Demerara home leaving a woman homeless and her parents and other siblings’ home with a gaping hole in the side.
The 1 pm fire at the Lot 52 Nabaclis home of Shondell Gardner destroyed the one-flat wooden building in a matter of minutes even as residents tried in vain to save it. The side of the building next to her, where her mother and other siblings resided was badly damaged.
According to reports the fire started at around 1 pm yesterday. Gardner’s sister, Earla told Stabroek News that she observed smoke emanating from her sister’s home at about that time and immediately shouted “fire, fire”. Shondell was upstairs with her mother at the time and said that she rushed downstairs only to find out that the blaze had grown and she could not have entered the building to save anything.
Residents formed a bucket brigade but the fire consumed the home in a matter of minutes. However, they managed to limit the damage to the nearby home. Relatives said that when the fire was quenched, it was only then that the fire service turned up. The large fire tender could not have entered the narrow street where the fire was though a smaller vehicle did.
A deeply shocked Gardner, who works as a security guard and is also a vendor sorted through the scorched clothes in the ruins of her home yesterday, and said that nothing was saved. She said that she was not cooking at the time and was adamant that it could not have been an electrical problem. She stated that among the items destroyed were two chair sets, her television, a fridge, stove, a wall divider, clothes and other items.
“In 15 minutes everything done”, a close relative said as Shondell appeared to be in shock. Clothes and furniture from the nearby building were outside yesterday as the occupants inspected the damage to the side of their building. Shondell said that she would be spending the night at her mother.
