A fire – suspected to be arson – last evening completely destroyed a two-storey wooden and concrete house at Adelphi Village, East Canje Berbice leaving a twenty-eight-year-old sales assistant contemplating his next move.
A devastated Andre Phillips of Lot 8 Adelphi Village explained that he was returning home from the Reliance Police Station just around 7 pm, when a resident informed him that his house was on fire. “When I run and come, I see the whole house on fire I couldn’t a save nothing”, he said.
Phillips had been renting the four-bedroom fully-furnished house since 2008. He noted, “Everybody for me abroad, me alone a live, the house furnish with everything.”
His aunt who was also at the scene added, “Everything gone for him, he get one big TV, one new bed he buy recently, all he documents, everything gone.”
Residents last evening said the fire started just before 7 pm, and they immediately put together a bucket brigade in an effort to quell it and save neighbouring houses from damage. Shortly after, the Guyana Fire Service arrived and took over the battle to put out the blaze.
The fire was eventually put out at around 8.10 pm. Firefighters, however, remained on the scene working.
Phillips last evening asserted that the fire was related to the matter he had at the Reliance Police Station. He said that he had faced threats over the last two days.
According to the man, he reported the incidents to the police “and this is the result, this is wah I get… I was threatened if they can’t get me in the lock up this is wah I get.”
As of last evening, police officers were also at the scene and had launched an investigation into the matter. “I go the station and the police take a statement and tell me go that them go deal with it tomorrow and be time I come home this happen”, Phillips added.
