Brandon Cabose, Essequibo Correspondent
FIRE yesterday gutted a concrete and wooden house on the Richmond Public Road, Essequibo Coast, leaving a family of five homeless.
According to occupant of the home, Ms. Claire Belfield, she and her youngest child, Joel, and her grandson were at home sleeping at about 11:30 hrs when she was awakened by shouts from her neighbours.
One of the neighbours Ms. Paro, told the Guyana Chronicle that she was looking out her door when she saw fire coming out from the window of her neighbour’s home and she immediately raised an alarm.
Awakened by her neighbour’s shouts, Ms. Belfield grabbed her son and grandson and ran outside. By that time the fire had started to spread through the building and there was nothing that she could have saved.
Meanwhile, her husband, Owen Belfield who is attached to the Anna Regina Police Station, said they received a call that a house was on fire, not knowing that it was his house that was burning.
Residents and onlookers who gathered at the scene were dissatisfied with the slow response from the fire station, based at Anna Regina.
“This is nonsense, we have a fire station not far from here and still deh couldn’t come save the house,” one eyewitness kept saying.
The family, who lived there for over 20 years, estimated their losses to be about $5M.
Meanwhile, an officer from the Fire Department at Anna Regina said the fire might have resulted from an electrical problem.