A cane cutter of Number Eight Village, West Coast Berbice is now homeless after a fire of unknown origin destroyed his two-bedroom house on Sunday evening.
Kenneth Joseph, 52, told Stabroek News that he had left home around 7 pm to go Number 5 Village to watch a football match. More than one hour later he received a few phone calls that his house was on fire.
Residents had contacted the fire service at Onverwagt and by the time Joseph got to the scene firefighters were already there trying desperately to put out the blaze. There was also a large crowd of onlookers. Neighbours said they were indoors when they heard persons raising an alarm and they ran out. “Everything happened so fast,” they recalled.
He lamented that all of his belongings, including furniture, clothing, a small amount of cash and his important documents were gone.
Besides, his cell phone also disappeared in the commotion. Only a few pieces of “working clothes” he had hanging on a line under the house remained.
He was still wondering how the fire started and said his house did not have electricity. A relative who was attending a christening nearby saw what looked like “a big ball of fire” before the fire started spreading in the entire house. Joseph, who also cultivates a five-acre plot of rice, was thankful that he was not in the house when the fire started. “Because the way how it happened, if I was in the house lying down it woulda been hard for me to get out,” he said.
