– Single mom was on night-shift as security guard

by Shauna Jemmott

THE last thing she expected after pulling an eleven-to-seven shift the night before, was rounding the corner early Monday morning and seeing the rented wooden cottage she called home on fire.

The woman, a single mother identified as Sydell Hector, had late Sunday night left for work, leaving her two young sons sound asleep in the house on Nimrod Street, Two Friends Village, East Coast Demerara.
Luckily for her, two-year-old Malachi and Nathaniel, four, were rescued in the nick of time, after an alert neighbour sounded the alarm that there was a fire in progress. Malachi has since been admitted for treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The Guyana Chronicle understands that so traumatised was the woman on learning that baby Malachi had suffered severe burns that she ran away.
Many were still asleep when, in response to young Nathaniel’s agonised screams, a neighbour, Colin Jack, a Guyana Defence Force (GDF) recruit, scaled a fence and gained entry to the burning house through a window in a bid to try to save the children.At that time, one of the children was already out.
Another neighbour, a woman named Donette, on hearing the cooomotion, sprung into action, breaking open the lone door to the house and took charge of Nathaniel.
Litle Malachi, was still in the house, and he was quickly snatched out of the burning building. It was discoevred that he was burnt to the arms and both knees.
Neighbours believe that a lit lamp in the house might have caused the fire.
A nurse, Rosetta Wilson, who lives obliquely opposite the now displaced family, attended to young Malachi’s burns before taking him to the hospital.
When the Guyana Chronicle arrived on the scene, the children had already been rescued, but what started as a small fire had already developed into a full-blown blaze, and engulfed the cottage.
About 20 minutes into the fire, the children’s mother, who was still wearing her red-and-black security guard uniform and carrying a handbag, was seen making her way home from work. But as she neared the house, neighbours had to physically restrain her as all she did was cry out in agony, fearing the worst.

Residents gathered at the scene voiced differing opinions, but immediate neighbours said it was passing strange that the children were left at home, since they usually stayed with a babysitter not far from where they lived.
Residents also noted that though the woman usually takes her children with her wherever she goes, she could could not very well take them with her that hour of the night, given the shift.
The baby sitter said that the mother did ask her to take the children for the night, but she (the babysitter) was unavailable.
Hector told the Guyana Chronicle that the children were left home alone because she could not afford to stay away from work; she was forced to take the night job becasue she needed the money to feed her children. she said she had taken the father of her children to court for financial support and had taken the job to make ends meet.
The family lost everything they owned in the fire; Hector was renting the property.
Meanwhile, a representative from Food for the Poor, Patricia Sam, arrived on the scene and promised that the organisation will assist the family, while a neighbour, Pamela Gulliver, is offering them shelter for the time being.