Years of hard work and savings were lost in the blink of an eye following a fire in Mocha, East Bank Demerara, last night, which has left four persons homeless.
The fire reportedly started at about 21:30hrs in the upper flat of the Lot 6 Plantation Prosperity, Barnwell North, Mocha, East Bank Demerara home. The building had three apartments that were all occupied.
Based on reports received, the fire might have started by a candle that was left alight by one of the tenants.
At the scene earlier today, the owner of the property, Sappha Lord, stated that the neighbourhood has no electricity and she had set up a “generator system” for her tenants. However, Lord told Inews that she had taken the generator to be serviced yesterday, and as such, the tenants of the home used candles.
A tearful Lord recalled that the tenant of the upper flat had left a candle unattended and retired to bed, and it was until she awoke around 22:00hrs that she noticed that the home she had spent years investing in, was on fire.
“Everything gone. All meh hard wuk. I wuk so fuh bring this up. This is wa I does depend pon fuh me family and them thing and now I aint got nothing,” she said.
The woman tearfully noted that although members of the community came out to assist, there was no water source close by.
“Everybody in the community come out, they come out with buckets and everything and we aint had no water because the canal stagnated,” Lord said.
Additionally, the woman who was still in disarray is contending that had the Government answered the community’s calls for electricity in the area, the fire could have been avoided.
“Late last year, we call out for somebody to come in because snakes does be coming up [from the trench] and all kinda thing does be coming up from the canal. It stagnated, you know with the mosquito and thing. We begging fuh we lights, fuh we get we lights because if we had lights yuh cudda say it was the electrical problem, but is nah electrical problem. Is just a candle and all ah me hard wuk gone. Everything,” the woman said while in tears.
Lord estimates her losses to be approximately $13M.
The fire officials are investigating the incident. (Ramona Luthi)
