THE quiet afternoon atmosphere of Sixth Street, Alberttown, Georgetown was suddenly transformed into chaos in the onslaught of a fire that completely gutted a house at Lot 76, Sixth Street Alberttown, leaving homeless 91-year-old Enid Duesbury and one of her sons, 54-year-old Edwin Oudkerk, his spouse and her four children, who are all between the ages of three and 10 years.

Oudkerk said he was at the dentist at about minutes to four when he received a call informing that his house was on fire. Upon arriving home, he said he saw his house well alit and subsequently learnt that one of his sons had been playing with matches.

“I get di call about an hour/hour-and-a-half ago and I ride and come down here, and duh is wuh I come to!” the heavily dispirited man said, adding: “Everything for me gone up in de air!”

Oudkerk said he later learnt that the children were in one room with their mother, but his four-year-old son slipped into the other room and lit a match which landed on a mattress, resulting in the fire consuming the entire house.

“I hear that the mother and these lil children been in one bedroom and one a de lil boy slip out and go in de other bedroom, and like he light a match and it get ketch on the mattress,” Oudkirk told reporters.
He stressed that the family does not encourage the children to play with matches, and he is of the belief that, after cooking today, he accidently left the matches on the dresser, which could have been easily accessed by the children.

“I cook today and I don’t know if I accidently left the matches on the dresser and the little guy go and pick up the matches and play with the matches,” Oudkerk said.

Reports reaching this publication are that neighbours, upon being alerted to the fire, assisted the aged woman and the children to exit the house, because at the time of the fire they were still in the house.

The Guyana Fire Service reportedly responded to the call when the house had been completely destroyed, but was however, able to prevent the fire from spreading to neighbouring houses.

The elderly Enid Duesbury, who is also sightless, and her son’s spouse were taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital for medical treatment.

(By Ravin Singh)