Twenty homeless after Mandela Ave blaze

The house on Mandela Avenue, East Ruimveldt which was gutted by fire.

Some 20 persons were last evening counting their losses after a fire of unknown origin gutted their one-flat, two-bedroom concrete home at Lot 663, Mandela Avenue, East Ruimveldt yesterday afternoon.

Vanessa Braithwaite, whose mother Esmay Braithwaite owns the house, told this newspaper  at the scene yesterday that  she was at work at the East Ruimveldt Secondary School around 2:45 when someone informed her that her home was on fire. She said when she arrived at the scene the house which does not receive electricity was in flames, noting that it was impossible at the time to save anything.

The house on Mandela Avenue, East Ruimveldt which was gutted by fire.

She said neighbours related that someone saw smoke emanating from the back of the house but by the time the fire service responded, the entire house was engulfed. The woman said that she was at home around lunchtime yesterday and left there around 1 pm for work. She said the entire ordeal came as a shock as no one was in the house at the time of the fire and according to her, the family would have a difficult time finding alternative places to stay for the next few nights.

Esther Braithwaite, right, is comforted by another relative, after all her belongings and those of her children were consumed by the fire yesterday.

When Stabroek News arrived at the scene, officers of the fire service were dousing the gutted house. Several children who live at the location began to arrive home from school to be greeted by their weeping relatives while neighbours and passers-by offered words of comfort.

A fireman douses a section of the house at Lot 663, Mandela Avenue yesterday afternoon.

The occupants of the house could not estimate their losses yesterday but Braithwaite noted that all her belongings and those of her three children were consumed by the fire. Two other families live at the house.