Written By Michel Outridge
A FAMILY of seven has been left homeless after a fire at their Lot 429 West Met-en-Meerzorg, West Coast Demerara home, yesterday morning.

The origin of the fire is yet to be determined by the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) but the house owner, Anita Drepaul told the Guyana Chronicle it started about 09:30hrs when she had just returned from purchasing greens for resale in the neighbourhood.
She said she was under the building with four of her five children when her neighbour shouted to alert her to what was happening in the upper flat of the wooden edifice.
Drepaul said, within minutes, the entire top storey was engulfed in flames that quickly spread and reduced the structure to a pile of rubble, giving her no opportunity to save anything.
She said she and her children, however, managed to run to safety and the GFS was summoned to douse the flames which originated in one of the bedrooms.
The greens vendor added that, at that time, no cooking was taking place and none of the electrical appliances, except for the refrigerator, was operating.
Drepaul said neither was there any electrical faults in the house except for a shaky point by the refrigerator.

FULLY FURNISHED
She lost all her worldly possessions in the fully furnished household, including furniture. The woman’s husband, Philip Trotz, who is a canecutter, was not there when the conflagration took place but he received a call about it and, by the time he reached the scene, his home was no more. He told reporters that the inferno resulted in a great loss and was a severe blow to his family because they have nowhere to go but he pledged to work and rebuild over time. Chief Fire Officer Marlon Gentle said the Leonora Fire Station responded to the report and firefighters contained the disaster to the one building. He said an investigation has begun to determine the cause of the destruction.