The fire which occurred at 429 North East La Penitence is believed to have started in a bedroom upstairs.
According to owner of the house, Shelly Haley, who shares the property with several relatives, she got a call while at work about a fire at her place. She said that at first she did not believe when she was told that her house was on fire. The call she said was received around 12.30 pm. The distraught woman related that the house was her grandmother’s.
Meanwhile another occupant of the house, Tenisha Livan, said that she was downstairs drying her hair when she heard her aunt crying “fire! Fire!” She said that the fire started in the third bedroom. Livan said that the entire upstairs was scorched while the downstairs suffered water damage, “We have nowhere to go now, we need help right now,” she lamented.
And Sharon Isaacs, the sister of Shelly, and another occupant of the house said that she was in the sewing room when she smelled something burning.
She said she followed the smell to the room in which the fire started. She said that she kicked open the door and when she saw the fire “pelting out”; she reached for a nearby jug with water and threw it on the fire. The blaze became fiercer she said and “think black smoke” began to curl around her, she related. She said that one of her relatives ran out of the top flat screaming fire and as the smoke began to get thicker she too got out without the chance to save anything.
When this newspaper visited the home, furniture and other items that were salvaged could be seen lying in the yard of a neighbour as family and friends gathered to assist with the moving and others milled about discussing the incident.
Shortly after, a member of the Guyana Relief Council showed up and was discussing the losses the family suffered with Haley. One relative said that they were only able to save things that were in the bottom flat. Everything in the top flat was destroyed, she said.
The response by the fire service was said to be prompt but one resident in the area said that she had to call twice and when the engine did arrive it did not have water. This resulted in confusion and a scramble to get water from the nearby trench.
(Tiffny Rhodius)
