By Sherah Alleyne

A FIRE of unknown origin completely destroyed a two-storey, four-apartment, wooden and concrete building at 44 Shell Road, Kitty Georgetown early on Monday morning, leaving four families, a total of 11 persons, homeless.

The fire reportedly began in the front section on the upper-flat of the building, and quickly swept through the entire house.

Tamika Halley said she was cleaning when she smelled the smoke, and ran upstairs to grab her passport and run out of the building. She had shared an apartment in the building with her roommate Demallea Benjamin, an employee of the Guyana Water Inc.

Benjamin was at work when her roommate called to inform her that the house had burnt down. The GWI staffer had purchased some appliances for Christmas, but lost all to the raging flames.

Boyo (only name given), who identified himself as the owner of the building, told the Guyana Chronicle that he was at work when a neighbour informed him of the fire.

A mentally unstable woman who lived in the top flat of the building was reportedly seen leaving the property just before the fire started. Neighbours recalled hearing an explosion before the fire started.

The Guyana Fire Service responded promptly to the call and managed to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby houses, but tenants in the building were unable to save anything, since most of them were at work at the time of the blaze.

An investigation has been launched to ascertain the cause of the fire.