FIRE Chief, Marlon Gentle said the fire which left 16 persons homeless at 49-50 Middle Street, McDoom, East Bank Demerara last Friday is suspected to be electrical in origin, citing faulty wiring as a major contributing factor.

The Fire Chief however noted that investigation is still on going in the matter. He pointed out that investigators had discovered several illegal electrical connections leading to the homes and bedroom.

On Friday last, Guyana Chronicle visited the fire scene and spoke with one of the victims, Onika Welch who lived with her four children and granddaughter at Lot 50, which consisted of an upper and lower apartment, while two houses were in Lot 49. Welch said that she resided in the upper flat of the building, while the tenants in the lower flat were not at home when the fire started sometime after 01:30hrs on Friday.

The woman said she was asleep and was awakened by the immense heat and she immediately ran into the children’s room to ensure their safety and hurried of the house screaming “fire.”

Welch said she alerted other residents in the nearby houses, which are situated very close to each other, as they were all asleep. She related that she had no time to save any of her valuables as the fire quickly razed the two houses next door. Welch is not sure what caused the fire and estimated her losses to be more than $1M. The woman had criticised the response from the Guyana Fire Service, alleging that the fire tenders had no water after showing up some two hours after the blaze erupted.