The Guyana Fire Service has concluded based on its investigation that the fire which ravaged the apartment complex at Riverview Ruimveldt on Monday was due to an unattended child playing with matches.
Contacted for an update yesterday, Fire Chief Gregory Wickham said, “Based on the conclusion of our investigation it has been determined that the fire was caused by a child who was left unattended playing with matches which caught on to nearby combustible materials.”
The fire which erupted at about 14.50 hours at the two-storey apartment complex at Lot 17 Riverview, Ruimveldt, Georgetown, has since left five families’ homeless and with them trying to come to grips and recover from their losses.
Initially, this newspaper had reported that 22-year-old Brandon Baker, a tenant who lived in one of the units at the apartment complex was first to smell smoke, and upon checking, saw heavy smoke along with fire and a little girl screaming on the steps of the apartment where the fire started.
“I been lie down watching TV, me girl deh downstairs washing clothes and I start smell this heavy smoke like burn rubber so I get up fuh come outside and see if anything burning and when I look over the next side [the unit next to his] cause it gat a crease by the house, and when I look through the crease I see a big fire deh over deh and it had a lil girl hollering so I run around and when I run around fuh see wuh going on… like to check and see if is a fire fuh out or so, I see the chair set that went pack up together deh on fire… and when the chair set went on fire was a big blaze so nobody couldn’t out it, only the fire service coulda out duh… and by the time I see duh I hustle and save the lil girl that went on the step hollering and carry she downstairs and I run around back by me to see wuh I could save but it was nothing, I couldn’t save nothing, everything bun up… is till when I start hallah is then when everybody become alert.”
Meanwhile, 65-year-old Gavin Wesley Joseph, one of the brothers who had co-owned the building and resided in a unit on the lower flat had stated, “I been downstairs in the yard going to wash now and then I hear somebody hollering ‘Fire! Fire!’ and I then I see the big smoke and I seh ‘Is wuh really going on upstairs deh?’ and I see the house catching a fire… it had a little girl but they manage to get she out… I never get to save nothing nothing nothing…” Joseph had disclosed that the building was not insured.
According to another tenant, Adonie Thompson, 22, there were four apartments at the top and two on the lower flat.
The tenants were not able to save any of their belongings since they had to run to safety with only the clothes they were wearing. They had estimated their losses to be in thousands.
Persons wishing to assist Baker and his partner, along with the other tenant, Tasha, can contact them on telephone numbers 668-2432 or 661-7351 and 602-3428 or 636-5350 respectively.
