…arson suspected
A man is in hiding following a fire that razed his home at 103 Dwarka Street, Better Hope Scheme, East Coast Demerara, early yesterday morning.
The fire started about 3:00hrs yesterday. There was another fire in the building earlier that day, but that was extinguished before the fire tender arrived.
The fire is believed to be arson since the male resident and other relatives are embroiled in a property dispute. And a few days ago a female relative was overheard threatening to burn the house down if she could not live in it.
A neighbour, Indranie Persaud, told reporters that she was awakened after midnight by a group of men in a minibus who informed her that the building next door was on fire.
Persaud stated that she heard crackling sounds and she saw the entire building engulfed in flames.
She said prior to the first fire, the lone occupant of the house, a man  in his 20’s, called “Pang”, was seen hitting a machete against the wall of the house, apparently intoxicated, and shouting threats.
She told reporters yesterday that the entire side of her house is scorched and all her louvre panes were broken by the intense heat of the fire next door.
Persaud explained that the GFS first soaked her house with water, which she claimed saved the building and a shed at the side of her house.
She said her laundry hung on a clothes line was burnt and a gutter on that side of the house was reduced to ashes.