A fire destroyed the homes of two families in a range house at Tucville Terrace, East La Penitence, yesterday morning, leaving them devastated as they contemplate their next move.
The cause of the mid-morning fire was not clear. Homeless are seven persons who make up the family of Tonya George and five persons belonging to the C. Clarke household. The families told Stabroek News that they learnt of the fire after being alerted by neigbours.
Michael Telesford, one of the neigbours to have first noticed the fire, related that he was sitting with his friends when they noticed flames at the upper flat of George’s 3C Tucville Terrace home. He said that the fire was emanating from a bedroom and he quickly sounded an alarm. He ran over to the house and immediately began to evacuate George’s children.
“I see the fire from the front bedroom and I run over to the house and them come out the house…I went downstairs inside another bedroom and wake up their mother,” Telesford recounted. “I wake she up and say ‘aye girl, fire in the house, come get out’… by time we come out of the house, the entire upstairs was in flames.”
As the fire grew, it engulfed the 3B unit owned by Clarke.
When Stabroek News visited the victims following the fire, George was being consoled by loved ones. She was in disbelief. Nothing was saved from her property, which she said was fully furnished. The woman told Stabroek News that she, along with her five children and a cousin, resided in the three-bedroom home.
“My bedroom is downstairs and the fire started upstairs. I was sleeping and I heard somebody shouting about fire in the house,” George, who works a cleaner at the West Ruimveldt Primary School, said.
“I don’t know what caused the fire. We have no electrical problems,” she said when asked about the possible cause. “When I come outside of the house, everything upstairs was burning. I lost everything. The house was furnished with everything,” she lamented, saying that her losses total over a million dollars.
At Clarke’s residence, the entire two-bedroom upper flat was gutted and the sitting area in the bottom flat was destroyed. The man recounted that he had just returned from church and was having breakfast when he heard the shouts of fire ringing out on the street.
“I sitting eating my breakfast because I was hungry and I hear someone shout ‘Fire! Fire!’ But I still continue eating because I was hungry,” the 75-year-old Clarke recalled. Shortly after, he said, he was lifted out of the house by his grandson and two others. “I was taken to by my daughter across the road. While sitting there, I saw the upstairs and my house next door in flames,” the man said.
Clarke, along with his wife Maureen Daniels-Clarke, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren shared the home.
Daniels-Clarke recalled that after serving breakfast to her husband, she heard the neighbours shouting ‘fire’. She explained that she rushed to the front of the house but did not see anything. It was after she stepped out on to the street that she saw her neighbours’ home on fire.
“I run in back and tell my husband ‘fire next door’ but he still continued eating. I had to call his grandson and others to help bring him out,” she related. The woman added that she attempted to go upstairs in a bid to try and save some items but the upper flat was already clouded with smoke.
“I didn’t reach upstairs, I was halfway and there was a lot of smoke. I had to come down back…only a TV my grandson manage to save. It was downstairs,” the woman said.
Response
Neighbours after responding to the alarm sounded, formed a bucket brigade but with the intense flames, their efforts were futile. The residents had to rely on the fire service to extinguish the flames and the victims said that the response was not prompt.
George said that when the firemen arrived on the scene, her house was already gutted and Clarke’s was burning.
Telesford said that the fire service’s response was delayed as the entrance road was blocked up by vehicles. The fire service had to wait on persons to move their vehicles so they could have passed and this took a while, he said.
The fire service, nonetheless, managed to prevent a third house from catching afire and was successful in extinguishing the flames.
George said she is willing to accept assistance from the public to rebuild her life. Persons desirous of assisting the family can contact her on 644-4124.
