Elias Kennedy was yesterday afternoon hailed a hero after he saved two children from a burning house at Covent Garden, East Bank Demerara (EBD).
According to reports, shortly after 3pm yesterday, smoke was seen emanating from the house at Lot 6, Covent Garden Squatting Area, EBD. The top-flat house was reduced to ashes within the matter of minutes after the two children, Isaiah and Sara Mahadeo, ages 4 and 5, respectively, were pulled out by their neighbour Kennedy.
The two children, their mother, her brother and parents were last evening looking for a place to spend the night following the fire.
The fire was reportedly started by the two children, who were playing with matches and accidently set a mattress alight. Moments later, the entire building was engulfed in flames.
According to Kennedy, he was on his way home, some five houses away from the scene of the fire, when he observed smoke “coming out of the people bedroom.” He said that he ran to his yard, threw his belongings on the ground and drenched himself with a bucket of water.
Kennedy said when he arrived at his neighbour’s front door, “the whole house on fire and I just see this lil boy standing by the back veranda like he confused.” He said that he ran through the house and grabbed the child from the burning building.
According to the man, “I pick he up and shake he up because I know is he and he sister does normally be together.” He said that when he questioned the child as regards the whereabouts of his sister, “he like he didn’t know what to say.” He said that he then returned to the building to look for the little girl but according to him, she was exiting the house via the back step.
He said that he took both children to a neighbour’s home and returned along with other residents to see what could be salvaged.
According to Rajkumari Mansukh, the children’s grandmother, she had moments earlier left them in the house to visit a neighbour. Later, someone shouted that her house was on her fire.
The elderly woman noted that she lived at the house along with her husband, their two children, and the two toddlers.
Members of the Guyana Fire Service arrived some 15 to 20 minutes after the fire began. But residents noted that the firemen were unable to access the area since only a small bridge connects the squatting area to other parts of the community. Upset residents also said that the fire engine circled the community several times before finally stopping close to the bridge, since the street leading to the area aback the community was too narrow.
According to a resident, “this bridge is the only thing that connecting this area to the rest of Covent Garden.”
He said that the narrow bridge was built by the primary school but he noted that the infrastructure was too small to allow vehicles to enter the community of 50-odd homes. “If a fire to break out at the school, I dunno how the fire people would reach the building,” another resident said.
The gutted house is located opposite the Covent Garden Primary School and according to an official at the school the institution had built the small bridge several years ago. He noted however, that vehicles would have to travel aback the community along the narrow street in order to reach the school’s compound.
