– neighbour cites sparking GPL wire
FIREFIGHTERS were late yesterday afternoon combing the debris in their bid to determine the origin of a fire which swept through a dwelling house at Lot 55 Public Road, Grove, leaving the owner Vanessa Higgins and three family members homeless, and considerable damage done to neighbouring properties.

Higgins, who is employed as a Day Care Teacher at Eccles Day Care Centre, East Bank of Demerara, as well as conducts her own beverage and food vending business, was attending a funeral at Eccles Assembly of God Church, also on the East Bank, when around 14:30 hrs she received a phone call from a mechanic living across the road from her, informing that her home was on fire.
Higgins said that in an impulsive response, she told the man, “Don’t make them kinds o’ joke”, but the mechanic insisted that he was serious. She hurried home, only to find the building fully engulfed and she was unable to save anything. “When I reached home everything done burn, everything burn,” she lamented, noting that all she had acquired in the 18 years she was living there had gone up in flames.
Apart from all her household furnishings, the woman also lost a Honda CRV motor vehicle which was completely destroyed and a Canter truck she had purchased just about three weeks ago was partially destroyed.
The deeply distraught woman told reporters that no one was at home at the time of the fire. Her two children who live with her, were both at school and another occupant was at work. Her mother, who lives at Linden but had spent the weekend with Vanessa and the children, had returned home earlier in the morning. On receiving the sad news, Yvette immediately phoned her mother who was already in Linden.
Higgins who also sells snacks and beverages on the seawalls on Sunday nights, recalled that since they came home late that night, she did not bother to prepare meals yesterday morning, but gave them snacks and money to buy food. Therefore, there was no question of her leaving any stove alight. “I did not cook food, nor iron or anything of the sort, so I am sure nothing was left alight or plugged in,” she insisted.
And on this occasion, she did not drive to the church for the funeral but caught a minibus and travelled down, leaving both vehicles parked in the yard.
The male occupant of the house, Joniel Mc Calmon said that he was returning home from work when he learnt that Vanessa’s home was on fire, so he begged the Providence Station police to help get him there quickly, but when he arrived it was too late. Everything was already destroyed.
SPARKING WIRE
Another neighbour blamed the fire on a sparking wire extending from the house to the utility pole at the roadside. And Higgins recalled that Guyana Power and Light (GPL) servicemen had recently removed the meter from the building and installed it on a power pole. She could not, however, say whether it was a faulty connection that caused the problem.
Her eldest daughter, Carla who lives at her father’s place, arrived on the scene soon after, and there was loud wailing as the two embraced. Asked where would she and her two school-aged children (eight and ten) spend the night, Vanessa cried, “I don’t know, I have nowhere to go.”
Meanwhile, her neighbour to the west, Kavita Lall, recalled she had just gotten into bed to take a rest when she heard neighbours frantically shouting, “Fire! Fire! Look the neighbour house burning!” She said she jumped up, looked out and saw the fire coming from Vanessa’s house. “I get so confused I didn’t know what to do and so I ran out the house,” Kavita said. The top portion of Kavita’s building was badly burnt and what was left of it was doused with water by the firemen.
But public-spirited neighbours managed to pull some household items of furniture to safety which they stored in the backyard before the fire tenders arrived on the scene.
And in a great outpouring of goodwill, the Headmistress of Diamond Secondary School and students of Hema Lall’s class hurried down to the scene. Hema is Kavita’s daughter. Headmistress Lesmin Collins said that Hema was in an Information Technology class when the students brought the news about the fire and asked for her to be sent home. The student reacted in shock and was helped home by the headmistress and classmates.
Meantime, a neighbour to the east, Mr. Kawall who rents his property to a dealer operating Phoenix Water Service, said he was just driving through the street when he noticed the fire. He quickly disembarked the vehicle and ran to render assistance. He is thankful that there is an empty lot between the house that was on fire and his property, which obviously minimised the effects of the blaze on the building. However, a few water tanks and PVC gutters and pipelines were destroyed.
Written By  Shirley Thomas