A woman was killed in an early morning fire at her New Amsterdam, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) home, which she shared with seven other family members.
Dead is 58-year-old Sharron Austin of St. Magdalene Street, New Amsterdam, Berbice.
INews understands that Austin lived in the upper flat of the house with her husband, son, and two grandchildren. Her daughter, Police Sergeant in Charge of the Reliance Police Station Brenda Johnson, resided in the lower flat with two of her children.
Johnson related to this publication that shortly after 4:00h today, she heard someone stamping on the floor from the upper flat and thought it might have been burglars.
She said her 17-year-old son armed himself with a cutlass and ran outside, but before he could make it up the stairway, he heard his two younger sisters, who stays upstairs with their grandmother, shouting for fire.
“He ran to the door and got them downstairs, and they told him that Mummy (Austin) was coming and she turned back for something… The fire was not big when she went back but right by the door when she was coming out the smoke knocked her out and she fell down right there,” the grieving daughter related.
Johnson said her son tried to get to his grandmother, but the heat prevented him from doing so.
“He brake the window glass to get to go in, but the fire was too much there,” she recalled.
According to Johnson, her 7-year-old daughter, who was sleeping with the now dead woman, claimed she felt the room was hot and opened her eyes, discovering the fire on the clothes rack and alerted her granddaughter and elder sister.
The 14-year-old, who was in another bedroom, recounted that after being alerted of the blaze, she tried to get out but found that someone had locked her bedroom door from the outside.
“She [grandmother] had to come and open the bolt that is how I get to come out of my room,” the teenager said.
Meanwhile, Johnson expressed disappointment at the Fire Service’s response, claiming that after several calls, she drove over the the New Amsterdam Fire Service before the firefighters came out.
“I am living just about two minutes away from the fire station,” Johnson explained.
Meanwhile, both the Fire Department and the police are investigating the inferno.
