Nine persons, including two infants are now homeless after a two-flat three-bedroom wooden and concrete house went up in flames around 10 am yesterday at No. 50 Village, Corentyne.
Owner of the house, Rushell Rutherford, 42, told Stabroek News that no one was at home at the time of the fire.
She resided with her three daughters and four grandchildren – two two-year-olds and the infants: two and three months old.
An uncle, John Heyligar, 62, who occupied the lower flat left to go to Georgetown on Monday.
A livestock farmer and “box-hand holder,” the distraught Rutherford said that almost 100 of her ducks and fowls that were in a pen in the yard were burnt to death.
In tears, she lamented that she was unable to save anything.
While she could not immediately estimate her losses, she said she was putting in modern conveniences in the building and that renovations were almost completed.
She had also bought new appliances and only last week she bought new furniture. Her water tanks were also burnt.
She was also distressed that her important documents as well as a small amount of cash – proceeds from selling a few of her livestock -were destroyed.
The woman left home at around 6:30 am and went to the backdam in the company of a cousin to catch fish.
She said she was still there when two women arrived to give her the news that her house had burnt down and that nothing was saved.
She said she screamed and fell to the ground while asking if her grandchildren were alright.
She was relieved to hear that they were safe at her mother’s house on the opposite side of the road.
Rutherford, who has medical problems said she fell again as she headed out of the backdam and struggled to walk the long distance out.
By the time she got to the scene the building was already burnt and the fire tender from the Skeldon Fire Service was there dousing the ruins.
She said her other relatives nearby did not know the building was on fire.
Two boys who were on a bicycle about half-mile away saw the smoke and went to investigate and alerted persons who then contacted the No. 51 Police Station.
When the fire tender arrived at the scene within 20 minutes, the top of the building was burning.
Rutherford’s daughter, Melissa, 19, the mother of the two-year-old and three-month-old baby had gone across to her uncle’s house to get fish to cook and while she was there she heard people shouting “fire!”
