FIRE of unknown origin completely destroyed the upper and lower storeys of a wooden and concrete structure at Prospect, East Bank Demerara just before 16:00 hrs yesterday, leaving homeless Sookram Sewcharan (49), a machine operator at the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC INC.), and his family of seven members.Sewcharan told the Chronicle that he left work at approximately 16:00 hrs for his Lot 214 Prospect, East Bank Demerara home, and as he was riding home, neighbours alerted him that his house was on fire.

“I was coming from work, and when I come here, this is what I see,” the distraught man related. He said his wife was at home with their grandchildren at the time of the fire.

“As I was riding home, the people said ‘Uncle, come, look yuh house on fire!’ When I got here, the fire engine was here already,” a shocked Sewcharan revealed. “My wife was at home at the time. She just told me she smell something and she sent my son to check. He see the room upstairs on fire,” Sewcharan said.

Sewcharan said the account narrated to him by his wife, Sayeeda Aziz, and son, Sunil Sewcharan, indicate that the fire started in one of the three bedrooms in the upper flat of the house. “They said it started in the back bedroom, my son Sunil’s room,” the older Sewcharan told Guyana Chronicle.

Though he could not estimate his loss, Sewcharan said his house was furnished with all modern amenities. “I can’t estimate my loss…everything was in there; everything! We had everything inside the house… Everything! Everything!” he declared.

Sewcharan has been living at the Prospect house all his life, and is unsure of his next move. When this publication visited the location, Sewcharan and his family were found at his father’s house located obliquely from where his had stood.

“I don’t know what I will do now; I have to figure that out. I have relatives, my father lives opposite,” he said.

When he arrived on the scene, the Guyana Fire Service was already in position, but three-quarters of the house had already been destroyed. Sewcharan noted that the Fire Service had experienced some problems in obtaining water from a nearby trench, forcing a second fire tender to arrive on the scene.

Meanwhile, his wife Aziz received what appeared to be minor burns to her left hand. The 50-year-old woman told the Guyana Chronicle that she was making dinner when she smelled the smoke.
Aziz could not say what could have possibly caused the fire. The bedroom where the fire is believed to have started was occupied by Sunil Sewcharan, and according to his father, the room was equipped with only “a point and switch” that Sunil uses to charge his mobile device.

The family said they have not had any electrical troubles of recent, and could not understand how the house caught fire, given that no one was upstairs at the time the fire started.

Sewcharan’s five-year-old grandson was reportedly standing at the bottom of the stairs leading to the upper flat of the house when the smoke was observed.

Residents of Prospect expressed dissatisfaction with the Guyana Fire Service, noting that the entity failed to arrive on the scene prepared.

“I am not saying the house won’t have burned down, but what I am saying is that if they had come prepared it may not have been destroyed so; they may have been able to save something,” one resident said.

Another resident explained that the fire tender took half an hour to arrive on the scene. According to the resident, who wished to remain anonymous, a fire tender from Diamond, East Bank Demerara arrived first on the scene. However, that tender was ill-equipped to deal with the fire, as it had no water. Attempts were, however, made by firefighters on that tender to get water from a nearby trench.

A second fire tender was sent to Prospect, reportedly from Georgetown. “They don’t have water in the tank when they come. The one that came from Georgetown had water; the one that came from Diamond, can you believe they come from Diamond and they did not have any water in the tank? How GT one come with water and them own come without? Come on! They tek half an hour to come!” one resident said angrily.

However, a rank from the West Ruimveldt Fire Station explained to this publication that fire tenders do not ever leave the stations without water in their tanks. The rank said the water in the tank is equivalent to a 450-gallon black tank, which allegedly can be “exhausted” within two and a half minutes of fighting a fire.

Attempts to contact the Diamond Fire Station proved futile.