A mid-morning fire at Blue Berry Hill, Wismar, completely destroyed a three-bedroom wooden house, while the occupants were at work and school, as two fire tenders got stuck in the badly rutted road leading to the dwelling.
Homeless are Elvis Daw and his wife Simone Welcome and their three children Jamal 11, nine-year-old Shamar and six-year-old Shaquille.
Daw, a security guard at the Guyana Elections Commission Linden office said he was at work when he received a telephone call from his father, some time after 10 am, querying if he had heard of the incident at his house. “I told him no, but shortly after another call come through and I had to ask fuh time off and come and see wah was going on,” Daw said.
The man said that by the time he arrived on the scene his house was completely destroyed and all his belongings burnt.
Daw said he was sure that he had unplugged all of his electrical appliances and had not left the stove on. “I does normally lef home bout quarter past five,” he said. “But dis morning I lef lil late because I had to drop my wife to work and I lef bout 6.15 am. Everybody lef the same time cause when we leaving we don’t lef dem children home; they does go to school early.”
The perplexed man said that he and his wife, who both work for security services, had made major sacrifices to accumulate every little thing to make the family comfortable. “Now we gat to start all over again,” he lamented. “Dis is hard really hard and I don’t know wah coulda cause dis. I don’t know.”
According to reports, two fire tenders responded after the Fire Service was called. One got there first and used all of the water in its tank on the fire. There was no water in the area, so the tender left to replenish its tank. However, as its driver navigated the badly rutted road in the Blue Berry Hill, Wismar area, it became stuck in the clayey-sand with which the road had been built. The second tender, rushing in with a full tank of water could not navigate its way past the first stuck tender. Meanwhile, the house burned.
Speaking with Stabroek News, one neighbour said he had just returned home when he noticed black smoke in the area. Upon investigation, he noticed the smoke emanating from the roof of the house. “I didn’t waste no time,” the man said. “I rush over and kick down de door. But by duh time de whole house was full with fire and I couldn’t do nothing. I just shout out fuh help and try fuh throw water. But everything bun up.”
Despite the valiant efforts of this neighbour and a few others who joined him, the fire quickly flattened the house. When the tenders were finally unstuck, fire fighters were only able to douse what was left of the house.
At the time just a few persons were at home in the area and because for the hilly terrain access to the house was challenging.
