…say complaints were made to landlord about faulty wiring

JUST about two weeks into the new year, numerous students who resided in an apartment building located at Lot 46 Third Street, Cummings Lodge, lost many of their belongings as a fire engulfed the building Friday night.

A few of the occupants returned to the site on Saturday in an attempt to recover any valuables; however, they all noted that they are now displaced and have received no reassurance or even any comfort from their landlord.
“I’ve lost everything and right now I don’t know what I will do,” second-year medical student of the Texila American University, Randy Persaud, said.
Randy, who disclosed that he moved from Essequibo so that he would be able to attend the university, noted that his only option now is to stay with his grandparents on the West Coast of Demerara.

This incident, according to Randy, will be hard to recover from since he was unable to save any of his belongings. He said grimly, “I expect to get compensation from the owner, but he’s not saying anything.”
Navin Manohar, another occupant who resided in the apartment building for 14 months now, said, “The fire broke out from the bottom room which was right below my bed.” He said too, that he attempted to extinguish the fire along with the help of other occupants but they failed.

“I rushed back to my room and all I managed to save were a few pieces of clothes, my laptop, my phone and my passport,” Navin recounted. He also attested, “It took a while for GPL to switch off the power and that may have contributed further to the building being aflame longer.”
Crestfallen, Navin said, “What we were expecting is that our landlord at least show us some courtesy… at least enquire last night if we have somewhere to sleep or something to eat.” Instead, Navin explained that the landlord, whom he identified as Mr. Balgobin, “came this morning uttering that his insurance has expired.”

The young man, barely keeping his tears at bay, highlighted that he too hails from the Essequibo Coast and this 14-month period was the first time he spent away from home. Navin is a teacher at the Richard Ishmael Secondary School, a Biology Major and is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s Degree in Education at the University of Guyana.
Sachin Persaud, who is studying to become a Medical Lab Technician at the Georgetown School of Nursing Annex, highlighted that he and his brother resided in the room which is situated just after the one where the fire originated.

He also recounted that they tried to extinguish the fire, but realised that doing so was not possible. Heroically, Sachin said he helped one female occupant to remove her belongings from the building but in so doing, he was unable to save much of his own belongings.
“All I could’ve done is watch the place burn,” Sachin said, while he noted that he lost all his documents, electronics, clothes and much more. He noted too that he made several complaints about the electrical problems in the building.

Unfortunately, even the luckiest person in this situation who managed to be residing in the only room left unharmed by the fire is still faced with a grim situation. First-year dental student at the University of Guyana, Jewel La Fleur, said, “I’m going to have to look for somewhere to stay.”
Jewel hails from Berbice and this is definitely going to present some problems, especially since the new semester begins in just about two weeks.

Fire electrical in nature
Meanwhile, Fire Chief Marlon Gentle said that the fire was indeed electrical in nature, since each of the 30 apartments had their own GPL feed. He said too that the fire spread quickly through the ceiling and since the building was energised, it affected the process of extinguishing the fire, coupled with the inadequate water supply.
The occupants claimed that they had made several complaints to their landlord regarding the faulty wiring of the building. They said too that due to negligence, they are left displaced and those hailing from areas such as Linden, Essequibo and Berbice are most affected, since they want to continue their pursuit of tertiary education, but will find it difficult to do so.