THICK, black smoke filled the early morning environment in Alexander Village yesterday, as fire completely destroyed a house at 39 First Street and the upper flat of the Lot 41 building next door.

Surrounding buildings were saved with help from the Guyana Fire Service (GFS), except for damage to the outer walls.
Fire trucks were still on the scene when the Guyana Chronicle arrived and found spectators on the street.
GFS Station Officer, Operations, Compton Sparman, told the media that they got the call at 07:35 hrs and responded initially with three tenders.
Preliminary investigations revealed some information that will have to be clarified, he offered.
According to reports, the conflagration started around 07:25 hrs at Lot 39 and made its way over to Lot 41, another wooden structure which is very close.
Eighty-year-old Priscilla Collins and eight-year-old Asafa Trotman were in the Lot 39 house at the time. Its other occupant, Wallace Trotman, had already left for work.
According to the elderly woman, she was brushing her teeth at the back of the house when she smelt smoke and, realising that it was from fire, she left the building by way of the stairs.
“In front didn’t begin to catch as yet, so I walk down the steps,” she said.

Lights flickering
Carla Trotman-Richards, who controls the Lot 39 property, said the occupants started smelling as if something was burning since Thursday night and neighbours even saw the lights flickering.
Her nephew, Asapha, told her that the flames originated in the front room.
Her brother, Wallace, said: “It smell like wire was burning but I saw nothing when I checked and went to work as usual.” He had been living there, in the house that his parents built, since 1986, he related.
Michelle Young, who lives in the upper flat of Lot 41, where she is a tenant of Raphael’s Real Estate, said she is the one who called the downstairs occupant, Molly Josiah, and informed her about the fire.
“I thank God for life and strength, because without him I would not have been here,” she declared.
Young, a nurse at The Palms, was at home preparing to go to her brother’s wedding and lamented that nothing in her dwelling was saved, and she estimated her losses at more than $4M.
Meanwhile, Muneshwar Persaud, who lives close by, reported that he saw the smoke from his back steps and rushed to help the fire victims save whatever they could.