Written By Michel Outridge
CHIEF Fire Officer, Marlon Gentle on Saturday said that Thursday’s 9.30 am fire at Lot 429 West Meten-Meer Zorg, West Coast Demerara, which completely destroyed a two-storey dwelling house and left a family of seven displaced, may have been started by children playing with matches.

The fire originated in one of the bedrooms in the upper flat of the edifice, and within minutes, the entire house was consumed.

Home owner Anita Drepaul told the Guyana Chronicle that she had just returned from the market and was preparing to sell greens in the neighbourhood when a neighbour alerted her to the blaze in her home. She said that four of her five children who were with her in the lower flat of the house had managed to escape to safety, although they had been unable to save anything.

Her cane cutter husband, Philip Trotz, was at work when the fire started.