Abusive husband sets fire, destroys family home
POLICE were, up to press time, hunting for a man, who, in a drunken rage, set his family home at Lot 3921 Westminister, Phase Two, La Parfait Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, on fire early yesterday morning. The blaze, following a domestic dispute, left his wife and five children homeless.
Naresh Seepersaud fled the scene after setting the upper flat of the two-storey building alight shortly after 06:30 hrs.
His wife, Swarsattie Mootoo said he went to his apartment and doused the mattresses with kerosene before starting the flames and proceeded downstairs where he lit the kerosene stove and set chairs afire.
The woman said her husband then stood at the entry and exit door with a piece of wood threatening to attack anyone who attempted to salvage anything.
The whole family had lived in the same house but Seepersaud occupied the upstairs while Mootoo and her children were the lower flat occupants.
Mootoo said she had approached the court because she was tired of being abused by Seepersaud, over the past seven years of being together with him.
The woman said she is determined to start over and will not let the disaster halt progress in her life.
Mootoo, 31, told the Guyana Chronicle she is thankful that she and five children escaped the flames safely but wants Seepersaud to be brought to justice since he has deprived them of the little worldly possessions they had.

UNBEARABLE
The woman said she supported herself, children and her husband, too, by operating a small grocery which was attached to their home but existence became unbearable since her other half began consuming alcohol and started to abuse her both verbally and physically.
“He started taking things from the shop and, when I talked about his behaviour, he would abuse me and even chase me with a knife, with which he threatened to kill me after consuming alcohol,” Mootoo lamented.
She related that, last Monday, her husband was placed on one year bond when he appeared at Wales Magistrate’s Court, also on West Bank Demerara, on charges of abuse and threatening behaviour.
That was after he had, often, threatened to kill her and burn the house with herself and children in it, a threat which he carried out yesterday morning on the concrete and wooden building.
Mootoo said Seepersaud, 36, does not work and has been living in the bottom flat of the house for the past three years.
She was unable to save anything in the house but relatives and neighbours were, afterwards, assisting her to clear the debris from the disaster.
In the same village, on April 11, another fire, believed to have been started by children, destroyed a house and killed two other children, who were left unattended and trapped inside.
Meanwhile, Chief Fire Officer Marlon Gentle, commenting on the latest conflagration, told this newspaper that the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) received the call about 07:05 hrs and three tenders responded.

THWARTED
He said the initial response, by a tender from West Ruimveldt in Georgetown, was thwarted because of an accident on the Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB) as the vehicle was on its way. Two cars were speeding and, whilst overtaking on the DHB, caused the tender to puncture and damage one of its fenders and a wheel, rendering it immobile.
Gentle said, at the time, the tender was using its siren but the drivers of the cars ignored it.
He said a tender from the Leonora Fire Station, on the West Coast Demerara, then responded and contained the destruction to one building, while saving others nearby.