Central Amelia’s Ward residents are appealing for relief from a brush fire in the area that is threatening their homes.
The fire, which was believed to have been lit by someone who was clearing a plot of land at Phase 2 of Central Amelia’s Ward, is currently threatening several incomplete structures in the area and a few occupied homes.
According to Sharon Blair, the fire started on Wednesday night and was very intense. She said that her home was threatened as the inferno was well above the fence of her yard. “Last night it was really bad. It was blazing high above the fence and we were scared that it would have caught on to our house,” Blair explained.
She said that the fire department was summoned but was unable to render any assistance to her house because of the location.
When Stabroek News visited the area yesterday afternoon, the fire had completely burnt out over a two mile stretch of forested land. A number of incomplete structures narrowly escaped damage because of some fences which kept the flames at bay as well as the cleared out yard spaces at other lots.
Firefighters, this newspaper has learned, were unable to put out or control the fire on Wednesday night and instead made some attempts to protect the vulnerable properties.
However, Blair and a few others were left to the mercy of the flames, since the fire tender could not reach them due to the inaccessible roads and the sandy terrain.
A number of residents some distance away from the path of the fire said that they are greatly affected by the thick smoke. One woman said that she was forced to spend the night away from home with her children. “Who asthma ain’t raise coughing terrible because the smoke tek over the whole place so. I thought the fire people woulda been able to out it during the course of the night and ease the smoke but up to late that ain’t happen so I have to move out to get to sleep comfortable,” said one woman who declined to be named.
According to a senior police officer at Linden, up to late Wednesday night the blaze was out.
However, the heavy winds sweeping through the area reignited it yesterday afternoon. Both the police and the firefighters were expected to revisit the scene.
