FIERY DEATH
– he was trapped inside heavily grilled garage
OVERSEAS-based Guyanese Sundar Singh called ‘Moti’, 57, of Lot 31 Second Street, Success, East Coast Demerara, met a fiery death Sunday night when his house was destroyed by fire.

DEAD: Sundar Singh

Reports said he was trapped inside and was found dead in his heavily grilled garage.

His father, Johnny Singh, 88, of Mora Point, Mahaicony Creek, also on East Coast Demerara, said he received the dreadful news late Sunday night and went to the scene yesterday.

He said he was told that his son perished in the blaze and his body was at a city funeral home.

The victim lived alone in the building and his family resides abroad but he is survived by six siblings.

Singh said the tragedy is a real shock to the family.

Pandit Bissoondyal Maraj, 43, also of Second Street, Success, who lived next door and whose house was also consumed by the disaster, said it was about 23:30 h when he, his wife and daughter were alerted to the flames.

He said he tried to save all his worldly possessions but was unsuccessful and managed to only rescue his cows and is now staying at another neighbour’s house.

Maraj told the Guyana Chronicle the conflagration reportedly started in the upper flat of Singh’s residence and quickly spread to his.

The two gutted houses at Second Street, Success, East Coast Demerara.

Maraj said, as soon as it was spotted, the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) was summoned but responded an hour after with no water.

Maintaining that, if the fire tender had water, his house would have been saved, he criticised the GFS for the way it tried to douse the flames.

His wife was too distraught to speak yesterday and has taken ill.

One other neighbour, Shaheed Hamid, 42, said he was at home, with his aunt and two children, but was unable to save anything from his house.

He was trying to salvage some property from the water-soaked premises yesterday, with the help of relatives and others in the neighbourhood.

The windows on one side of his house were destroyed by the fire which he confirmed originated in Singh’s and quickly engulfed his neighbour’s which was destroyed within minutes.

Meanwhile, the police said that they have launched an investigation into the fire of unknown origin.

The Police said based on investigations so far, Pandit Bissoondyal was awakened by the heat coming from a fire that had engulfed his neighbour Sundar Singh’s home. The Police said an alarm was raised and units of the Guyana Fire Service responded and extinguished the fire.

Sundar Singh’s house after the fire.

However, both Bissoondyal’s and Sundar Singh’s homes were destroyed and the burnt body of Sundar Singh found among the debris,” the Police added.
The Police also stated that Sundar Singh, a re-migrant from the United States, lived alone and was known to be a heavy consumer of alcohol. The two-storey concrete building which he occupied was completely grilled and it is suspected that he may have been trapped inside, the Police said.