A two-bedroom unoccupied house belonging to an elderly couple at Met-en-meerzorg west, Railway View, West Coast Demerara was destroyed by fire around 8 pm yesterday in a suspected arson.
Lancelot Ross, 72, told Stabroek News that he lost his furniture, other household items, his father’s will among other personal documents and carpenter tools. The man also said that there were threats to burn the house down.
He and his wife, Patricia Cornelius, 64, were at their daughter, Mureen’s house at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, where they are now staying, when they received the news about the fire.
He said he would ride his bicycle and go there daily to cook for his two dogs and cats, feed his chickens and take care of his garden.
According to him, since they relocated, people would go into the yard and steal his fruits and a few nights ago persons broke into the house and stole his wife’s utensils.
A man even tried to assault him one day when he asked him what he was doing in his yard. He recalled that he while passing on his bicycle one day he heard some men saying, “he ain’t want move out from hay.”
A neighbour, Indira, who lives two houses away said she was about to take a shower when she “smell cloth burning” but she was not sure when it was coming from.
“Me went back inside and then I hear my neighbours shouting fire! Fire! By the time me wake me husband, the whole place full with big fire,” she said.
The fire service arrived sometime after and managed to contain the blaze, though when this newspaper turned up, there were was still small patches burning.
The fire tender had already exhausted its supply of water and had left to “replenish.” Some of the firefighters were also seen using buckets of water in the meantime.
