— gov’t reaches out to victims

FIRE of unknown origin early Wednesday morning completely destroyed three houses and left one uninhabitable in Pike Street, Kitty, Georgetown.
The fire which started just around 03:30hrs has left several families, including a three-month-old baby, homeless.

According to reports, the fire originated in the southern half of Lot 185 Pike Street, Kitty, completely gutting an old wooden house which housed seven apartments. The fire quickly spread to nearby houses located both east and west of the said property. No one was injured, neither was there any loss of life.

Residents said strong winds, the lack of water and proper firefighting strategies resulted in the total destruction of the three houses and damage to the fourth property.
Angela Demonick, a single mother of three children ages 10, 14 and 17 years old told the Guyana Chronicle that she was awakened to shouts of “Fire! Fire!”

The distraught single parent said she was able to save only two documents, while pointing out that her house is located two yards west of where the fire reportedly began.
“I could have barely saved two documents… I ain’t get to save no clothes,” the woman told the Guyana Chronicle, as her three children looked at their badly damaged home. Demonick said after she was alerted, she did not expect the fire to spread to her home. In fact, she returned to her house and gathered her children, even as she tried to remove her valuables and some clothing.

However, as she tried her best to remove items in the panic, she realised that her house was engulfed in the blaze. Firefighters, she said, mandated her and one of her daughters to leave the premises as the fire was spreading rapidly and posed a threat to their lives.
The woman said she had called the fire service, but they took some time to arrive and by then, the situation had moved from bad to worse.

ALREADY GUTTED
“The breeze was blowing strong and the fire was getting wilder…” she said, noting that when the fire tenders arrived, the property where the fire is believed to have started was already gutted.

“The fire just scorch this neighbour house and by the time they hustling to get water, it burn down my neighbour place and was hustling for mine,” said Demonick, who lived at her 191 Pike Street, Kitty home for 14 years.

She told this publication that her 14-year-old daughter is preparing to write the national third form examination, while her 10-year-old son who attends the F E Pollard Primary School, is writing common entrance next year.
“All I have is birth certificate and my ID,” the frustrated woman who lost all in her home said. And while she could not estimate her losses at the time, she noted that her house was fully furnished.

“Is everything burn up… I am getting a headache just thinking about it,” the house- wife added.
Until she obtains relief, Demonick and her children are housed by a neighbour obliquely to where she lived.

Meanwhile, Marlon (only name given), who occupied and maintained Lot 185 Pike Street, Kitty, the lot where the fire reportedly started, told the Guyana Chronicle that there were seven separate apartments within the premises.

He said he operated two shops in front of the property, all of which were gutted.
Marlon said he was watching basketball when he heard shouts of fire.
The man said he ran out of the room he occupies and got a bucket and attempted to out the fire, which he said was located toward the back door of the two-storey building.
“Them man call me and say is fire… by the time I could have reached out, I get one bucket of water— by the time I throw it at the back—I come back with the second bucket—me room had fire— fire been straight through.

“I just run straight out because like the fire was running straight out to me,” said the upset man, who told the Guyana Chronicle he strongly believes the fire was an act of arson.
“That ain’t look like electrical—somebody light a fire… The fire was coming down the back step as if it was a man coming down the back step. Me ain’t understand that — this was a funny, funny fire,” he remarked, as he showed the remains of his property.

LOST EVERYTHING
Marlon, like the other victims, lost everything. He said all of his documents, money, as well as his motorcycle were all destroyed in the Wednesday morning inferno.

“I said I ain’t gonna dead now and I run out of there,” he recounted, while noting that members of the Guyana Fire Service took about 40 minutes to respond to the fire.
“Three fire tenders come… is a reporter had to tell them go to the trench on Vlissengen Road,” the man who occupied the premises told this publication. He could not estimate his losses, but noted that he has to start all over again.

Another resident of the said premises laid some blame at the feet of the Guyana Fire Service. The young man who requested anonymity said the fire tenders did not arrive with much water and the firefighters struggled to find water sources.

“They came about 40 minutes after they were called… they got to prepare for these things man… they just show up like they come to look at a movie,” the angry man who lost all of this items told the Guyana Chronicle.

The situation for the Browne family of 185 Pike Street, Kitty (a neighbouring lot) which lost everything just after burying their father recently was no different. The distraught family told the Guyana Chronicle that the fire could not have come at a worse time.

ANOTHER TRAGEDY
Brian Browne, 57, described the fire as “another tragedy”. He said it was just before 4 o’clock Wednesday morning that he received a call indicating that there was a fire in the neighbouring Lot 185 Pike Street, Kitty.

“They were trying to out it but they couldn’t,” he recounted, pointing out that firefighters arrived late on the scene and were ill-prepared to put out the fire.

“They could have saved other houses, mine and the other two,” he said as he explained what transpired.

The man said he lived alone with his sister, but his brother who travelled to Guyana for their father’s funeral was also an occupant of the house.
The two-storey building he occupied also housed another family, the Guyana Chronicle understands. Browne was too distraught to estimate his losses, but like the other fire victims, indicated that he had everything in his home.
He chided some of the firefighters for what he considered to be lackadaisical firefighting measures.

“One chap was standing by this mammee tree with the hose and asked for water to shoot at the side of the buildings… they didn’t give him any… they are concentrating on this one which already burn,” he told this publication. His family was able to save a few items, but nothing substantial.

Meanwhile, Onika Jonas, an employee of Massy Security had left home around 19:00hrs to go to work. She told the Guyana Chronicle that it was while working her 19:00 hrs to 07:00 hrs shift that she was told the house she lived in was burnt.
“I wasn’t home,” the woman said, as she thanked God her children (18 and 13 months) were safe at their aunt’s house.

But though her children are safe, the woman who lived at the Lot 185 Pike Street property said she has lost everything.
Another fire victim, only known as “Rani,” when contacted via telephone was too devastated and traumatised to speak. The house she and her family occupied at Lot 191 Pike Street, Kitty, was completely flattened by the fire.

Meanwhile, a resident told the Guyana Chronicle that just before the fire started, there was an argument with persons who occupied the Lot 185 Pike Street, Kitty property where the fire reportedly started. Shortly after, an explosion was heard followed by shouts of fire.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
As word of the fire spread, Minister of State Joseph Harmon and Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, visited the scene and interacted with the victims.
The ministers committed government’s support. Minister Broomes provided breakfast to some of the affected victims who were taken to her home.

Similarly, Ministers of Social Protection Amna Ally and Keith Scott visited the victims later Wednesday morning and provided them with clothing, particularly for the children affected.
Minister Ally also pledged government’s support to the affected families and will be providing much-needed relief to the victims today. City Mayor Patricia Chase-Green also visited the victims.

POLICE FORCE
Meanwhile, the Guyana Police Force in a statement said firefighters responded to a report of a fire of unknown origin, which occurred between 03:30hrs and 05:00hrs and completely destroyed three buildings located at Lots 185 and 191 Pike Street, Kitty.
Fire tenders from Central, Campbellville, Ruimveldt and Alberttown fire stations were dispatched and the fire was extinguished at 05:00hrs, police said.

One of the Lot 191 Pike Street, Kitty properties was owned and occupied by 61- year-old Hansraj Manbodh and five other persons. Lot 185 Pike Street, Kitty, was owned and occupied by 69-year-old Jeanette Browne and occupied by two other persons, while the adjoining Lot 185, Pike Street property consisted of seven apartments, which housed an unknown number of persons.

The other property located at Lot 191 Pike Street, Kitty, was occupied by 46-year- old Angela Demonick and her three children.
It should be noted that there are two lots 185 and two lots 191 Pike Street, Kitty. The lots are side by side.