THE charred remains of pensioner and former boxer Godfrey Alexander, also known as ‘El-Fire’, was discovered in his burnt out Farm, East Bank Essequibo house yesterday morning. Speaking to reporters after the discovery, resident Charlene Bacchus said she was the first to discover that the building was on fire.
She said, when she awoke, sometime around 04:00 hrs, to prepare for work and heard crackling sounds, she peered through a window and realised that the smaller of two buildings on the same lot was ablaze.
The woman said she went outside to raise an alarm and observed that the other building on the property, which Alexander occupies, was also alight.
She said efforts to venture inside and ascertain if the elderly occupant was there were discouraged by the heat and smoke. Although no one knows what started the conflagration, the villagers suspect arson, as there was no electricity supply to either home, neither evidence that the flames spread or moved from one building to the other.
Alexander was described as a peaceful man who made his living by vending nuts and popcorns.
He lived in the upper flat of a two-storey building and there were tenants below while the other destroyed building was unoccupied.
Up to mid-morning yesterday, people were still trying to find out if the two tenants below, also pensioners, were at home at the time of the blaze.
Yesterday, as well, a woman named Esther Gaskin, arrived at the site with her two children, stating that she is the granddaughter of the deceased.
She told reporters she only learnt of the tragedy on visiting a shop. She said the property belonged to the dead man but hastened to point out that she knew of no family dispute over it that would have led to someone wanting to kill him and destroy the place.

VILLAGES AWAY
Gaskin said her mother and other family members live a few villages away, in Tuschen Housing Scheme,  also on the East Bank of Essequibo.
A Guyana Fire Service (GFS) tender responded in a timely manner and were able to save the second building from complete destruction and, subsequently, investigators began their investigations amidst smouldering  embers.
At the scene, too, was a group of pupils from Farm Nursery School, whose teachers took them there to view the destruction while cautioning them of the dangers of playing with matches.
Police have also cordoned off the entrance to the property and a rank was observed standing guard there.