Fire destroys Prashad Nagar house

An early morning fire at Deobirana Street, Prashad Nagar suspected to have been electrical in origin, yesterday destroyed the top flat of a two-storey house and left two persons homeless.

According to Robert Power, who lived with his wife in the house, at the time of the fire, there were two young children temporarily staying at the house. Power said he got up and made breakfast for his family and went upstairs to bring his wife downstairs for breakfast.

He said a few minutes after he returned downstairs, his wife called him from the upper flat of the house

The remains of the burnt house
The remains of the burnt house

and informed him that smoke was coming from the children’s room. At the time, the children were not in the room. He said when he went to the room, fire was coming from the ceiling and he suspected that it was electrical in origin.

He estimated that the fire started around 6.50 am.

Power said that in a desperate attempt to save his valuables, he took two laptop computers on to the bridge of his yard but within 7 to 10 minutes, someone stole the computers.

This newspaper was later informed that two persons have been arrested by the police for looting.

He said he called the police who called the fire service, since he could not get to his cellphone to retrieve the number of the Prashad Nagar Fire Station. He said they managed to put out the blaze in approximately 45 minutes.

Neighbours told this publication that they tried calling the fire service’s emergency number but it went unanswered.

Losses in the fire could not be estimated but Power said most of the items he lost in the fire had emotional meaning to him. He said having migrated from Barbados, he has been living in Guyana for the past 35 years and managed to gather a host of indigenous items from his travels to the interior.

He said persons living in the area were very helpful to him and his family in their time of distress and thus they managed to save a few items.

While the entire upper flat of the house was completely burnt out on the inside with just the walls of the house remaining, the lower flat appeared to be only partially burnt.