– residents bemoan late fire service response

FIRE destroyed a three- bedroom home at Good Intent, West Bank Demerara yesterday, leaving a family of eleven homeless.Those devastated by the blaze were Mr. Inshab Ali, a fisherman, his wife Ramrattie and their nine children, aged between 18 and three-years- old.
Mrs. Alli who collapsed in the house on witnessing the flames was saved by a neighbour who rushed into the blazing building and pulled her out in the nick of time.

LATE FIRE SERVICE RESPONSE
In the wake of the blaze residents in the area complained bitterly about the absence of a Fire Fighting Service in the area, saying that telephone calls to the West Demerara service went unanswered and a fire tender which

eventually reached the scene, did so long after the flames had gone out.
They said that it was fortunate that there had not been any homes close to the burning building or the losses would have been catastrophic.
Mrs. Alli disclosed that she was moving around in the bottom flat of the two-storey wooden building around 7.30 a.m. when she realised that something was amiss in the upper flat. She said that she went upstairs to investigate and was confronted by the blaze in the upper flat.
She tried to rouse her son who was asleep in the room but couldn’t get him awake. She had to pull him out of his bed and was halfway down the stairs with him when she lost consciousness.
Vijay, a neighbour on the opposite side of the street, said he rushed into the house and lifted her out of the building when he realised that she was still inside.
Her son, who by then had come awake, escaped injury.
A bucket brigade managed to save some of the furniture in the lower flat but all their belongings in the gutted upper flat were destroyed by the flames.
The Allis estimated their losses in the vicinity of at least ten million dollars.
The West Demerara Police are investigating.

(By Clifford Stanley)