INVESTIGATIONS are being conducted into a fire which occurred at about 02:30 hrs yesterday at Bloomfield, Corentyne, Berbice and which resulted in the death of pensioner, Morgan Jagai, 63.

Police said that residents observed the two storeyed wooden house on fire and raised an alarm.
Personnel from the Guyana Fire Service responded and extinguished the blaze and during a subsequent check, the charred remains of Morgan Jagai, who reportedly lived alone in the building, were found among the debris.

This is the second fiery death recorded in Berbice in less than a week.

Jagai is said to be a re-migrant who returned to his homeland  about a year ago, after living in the United States for about twenty seven years, according to his next door neighbour, Ms Subramanie, who was awakened by the shouts of fire.

The woman, along with her family, rushed outside where, three house lots away, she saw that the  house was already engulfed in flames.

Her son, Michael, then motored to  Rose Hall Town, a five-minute drive, where he informed the firefighters, who responded. However, by the time they arrived at the scene, the building was already destroyed and efforts were made to control the flames from spreading to nearby buildings.

Ms Subramanie said she last saw the deceased shortly  before 21:00 hrs, whilst she was returning home from church, as he was whistling to his two dogs.

According to her, after the fire was extinguished at around 04:00hrs, at dawn, the police, along with  the firefighters,  returned to the scene, where the charred remains of Jagai was caught by undertakers in a sheet, having fallen from the upper flat.

The eyewitness told Berbice media, that the remains was lying in his bedroom on  the upper flat, but the stairway accessing that location was burnt and, as a result, the firemen took poles, hitting the already fragile flooring whilst the undertakers armed themselves  with an opened sheet to capture the body, as it fell.

She said the body was burnt beyond recognition.

Jagai, she said, is survived by his wife Bibi, and two children, Natasha and Mark, all overseas based.
Last Wednesday , the charred remains  of Hazel Johnson was removed from her two-storied rented home, at Lot 30 Stanleytown, New Amsterdam  after fire gutted it shortly after 20:30 hrs, while the township was experiencing a power outage.

It is believed that an unattended kerosene lamp, may have been the cause of the blazé.

A post mortem examination revealed that death was due to smoke inhalation. She is expected to be buried today at Philadelphia Seventh Day Adventist church, prior to internment at Stanleytown cemetery.

Meanwhile, on January 24, 2009 Funeral Home proprietor Ivor Krishna Persaud, 63; his wife Parbattie ‘Patsy’ Persaud and their grandchildren, Melissa, 9, and Armand, 5, along with five dogs,  perished in their  heavily  grilled home after fire razed their home at Charlotte Street, New Amsterdam.