A fire at Ayube Road, Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara (EBD) on Saturday morning completely destroyed a two-storey house, leaving at least four persons homeless.
Reports are that at about 8:00h, smoke was seen billowing from the upper flat of the house, and within minutes, the house was completely engulfed in flames.
Ricardo Ramgobin, one of the occupants of the house, when contacted, told this publication that he was at work on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway when he received a telephone call from his wife, who was at home with their two children and mother-in-law, informing him that smoke was coming from the upper flat of the house.
He related that by the time he reached the scene, the house was completely engulfed.
“Persons were just flocking around looking on… they couldn’t help with anything because the heat was too intense,” he explained.
Ramgobin added that tenders from Timehri Fire Station took some time to arrive at the scene, by which time the house was completely burnt to the ground.
“When they come too, they encountered some issues with the hose, so that delayed them from getting into action right away…,” he explained.
The man, nevertheless, noted that his family managed to run to safety.
“They stand there looking at everything we have worked for over the years go up in flames… Nothing, nothing was saved, the only thing was the clothes we had on… We talking about millions of dollars just went up in flames,” the disconsolate father of two said. He added that someone managed to save his 4-runner that was parked under the house.
While he does not want to speculate, he believes that the fire might have been electrical in origin.
“No one was in the upper flat of the house…my wife was doing chores and my two children were playing in the lower flat… my mother-in-law was cooking…so we can only assume that it might have been electrical,” he explained.
The wooden-and-concrete structure belonged to his in-laws, but after marrying at least 10 years ago, he lived there with his wife. Up to late Saturday afternoon, friends and family members were assisting to remove the debris.
The Fire Service has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fire.
