Fire ravaged a five-bedroom, two-flat property at Dundee, Mahaicony at around 12:45 pm yesterday, leaving four homeless.
Annie Rahaman, 41, told Stabroek News that she was in the lower flat of the building with her husband, Raymond Rahaman and their sons, Trevor,
19, and Imran, 15, when she noticed thick smoke coming from the upper flat.
She immediately raised an alarm and workers assisted by using pressure pumps and buckets of water from an underground reservoir to douse the flames which started to spread rapidly.
They then contacted the Fire Service from the Blairmont Sugar Estate and a tender arrived within half an hour. After finally being able to access water from a nearby pond, firefighters’ desperate efforts to save the building were in vain.
When Stabroek News arrived at the scene at around 1:50 pm a large crowd had gathered. Workers and public-spirited citizens were at the back of the building – where the fire had not yet reached – assisting the firemen to douse the inside.
Other persons scaled a high concrete fence at the back of the house and removed tools and other articles from a storeroom as well as other items from “downstairs” to safety. Some other articles that had been removed earlier were placed in a vacant lot in front of the house.
No other building was under threat from the fire but a water tank in a nearby yard was destroyed.
Reports are that the workers had been in the yard painting and others were conducting electrical work with the use of a generator as there had been a blackout in the area.
The owner of the house, Raymond, reportedly told investigators that a “short circuit” may have caused the fire. Shortly after speaking to the police the man, who was unwell, collapsed and had to be rushed to the Mahaicony Hospital where he was admitted a patient.
In tears, Annie said her family re-migrated from Canada and began occupying the house one and a half year ago. She was worried about what the future holds for them, lamenting that “we don’t have nothing now.”
