Fire destroys Palmyra house

A 39-year-old Palmyra woman is counting her blessings after narrowly escaping what could have been a fatal house fire that destroyed virtually everything she owned just minutes after she left home.

Now homeless and struggling to come to terms with her loss, Ayana Johnson believes the blaze that gutted the two-storey house she had called home for more than five years may have been deliberately set.

Johnson, the lone occupant of the building at Lot 22 Palmyra, Region Six, recalled returning home from work on Tuesday afternoon, changing out of her work clothes and leaving shortly afterwards to visit a friend.

She said she spent only a few minutes inside the house before riding away on her motorcycle.

As she was leaving, Johnson said she noticed workers attached to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) carrying out electrical work on a utility pole in front of the house.

She continued on her way, unaware that within minutes her home would be engulfed in flames.

While returning, Johnson said she noticed fire tenders speeding through the area but never imagined they were responding to an emergency at her own home.

“I was watching up in the air. I see where the smoke coming from and I was wondering what was really going on,” she recalled.

It was only after turning into her street and seeing the heavy traffic and gathering of people that the horrifying reality dawned on her.

“When I came to the entrance, I realised, ‘This is my place.’”

Still shaken by the ordeal, Johnson said the thought that continues to haunt her is how close she came to losing her life.

“I just come home. I could have come home and gone to sleep. I could have gone to sleep and get burned up in the fire,” she said.

Johnson said she had barely entered the house before leaving again and does not believe she left anything cooking or knowingly left any electrical appliance operating.

“It was just run in, run out,” she explained.

She also believes someone could have gained access to the building from the rear.

Johnson pointed out that behind the property is a vacant lot leading to the public road and that a window on the lower flat of the building could be easily accessed from that area.

She said the fire reportedly started at the back of the building, leading her to suspect that the blaze may have been deliberately set.

However, she stopped short of accusing anyone of being responsible and said she hopes investigators determine exactly how the fire started.

The blaze destroyed nearly all of her possessions, including bedroom furniture, wardrobes, a vanity, chairs, a television, music system, refrigerator, washing machine, microwave, gas stove, electric kettle, toaster and numerous other household items accumulated over the years.

Unable to estimate the value of her losses, Johnson, a 10-day worker at the New Amsterdam Hospital, said everything she had worked to acquire over the past five years and five months was reduced to ashes in a matter of minutes.

As family members and neighbours tried to comfort her at the scene, Johnson struggled to accept that she no longer had a place to call home.

For now, she faces the daunting task of rebuilding her life from scratch while waiting for answers about what caused the devastating blaze.

Police and fire officials are continuing their investigations into the fire.