A 70-year-old woman was early Sunday morning burnt to death after fire engulfed her Lot 90 Hope Street, Enmore, East Coast Demerara home.
The dead woman was identified as Bhagmatie John.
The fire reportedly started around 02:30hrs Sunday and quickly engulfed the small two-storey wooden structure.
Firefighters were summoned, but by the time they arrived the building was already destroyed.
The woman who lived alone was being cared for by her two daughters who lived a short distance from her.
There was no electricity connected to the building.
One of the daughters, Lilawattie John, said in the wee hours of Sunday she was informed by her sister about the tragedy.
“This morning ‘bout 2:30 me sister call me and tell me that my mother house on fire and she inside the house and she a burn in the house. By time me reach here, the fire done deh big already,” the woman’s daughter recalled.
John said she and her sister had earlier gone over and ensured that the elderly woman retired to bed.
“Last night we carry food and look after she and so, and see she go up in the house and go in she bed and so. But she does light a small (kerosene) lamp. She get a battery lamp, but when the battery charging done, the small lamp does continue, but I don’t know what happen,” the distraught woman said.
The daughter noted that she or her sister would usually light the small lamp and properly secure it before leaving and on Saturday evening that was exactly the case.
“She nah does light the lamp, a me does light and, and sometime she (the other daughter) does light it and left she, I light it last night and make sure everything ok and then me and my sister left,” she recalled.
It is believed that the elderly woman, who had poor eyesight, may have accidentally knocked over the lamp, causing the blaze.
However, this theory has not yet been confirmed as the Fire Service is continuing its investigations.
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