OVER a dozen people are now homeless as three buildings, including a liquor store, went up in flames Thursday night at Sandy Babb and Railway Street, Kitty, Georgetown. A vehicle parked in front of one of the buildings was also totally destroyed, leaving only the shell behind. The owner was identified as a miner, Paul Chow. The house he lived in was also scorched, but he was not around at the time of the fire.
Hours after the fire, Fire Chief Marlon Gentle told the Guyana Chronicle that investigations revealed that the fire was as an act of arson and police are hunting for the suspect who committed the act.

He explained that the perpetrator and his brother were previously engaged in a dispute and a failed attempt was made to torch the building some time ago.

But on this occasion, he succeeded.

“My men held the line and put their life on the line, they stood there and fought the fire and managed to contain it from spreading further,” he said.

Desire Primo, 64, who lived in the house where the fire started on Railway Street, Kitty, said that her apartment was one of two on the lower-flat of the wooden building.
“I was in my bed sleeping between 9-10 and a heat wake me up and I hear somebody from upstairs hollering fire, by the time I jump off the bed and look, I see the fire already deh by the wall coming through,” the pensioner said.
Noting that the building was a wooden structure, the distressed newspaper vendor said she lived in the front section of the structure with many other tenants in the yard.
“When I run out I leave behind everything that I had, the clothes that I have on is what people give me to cover up myself, I lived there for over four years. I have big children but none of them in town, and I will have to find somewhere to sleep tonight,” she said.
Another occupant of the building said that the fire started at the rear of the building.
“Is one of them that does smoke and suh that light a mattress in his mother’s apartment, she was not at home,” the occupant said.
Navin Sarwan , of Lot 10, Railway Street , Kitty, said he was napping on his sofa when he realised smoke was filling his apartment at a rapid pace.
RUN
“The smoke seeped through the ventilation blocks and when I wake up with the smoke, I just grabbed my two kids and jumped into the car and reversed out. I could not have saved anything, not even my pet poodle, the smoke was too much, so she perished,” Sarwan said.
The man said he will be staying with relatives “until things are sorted out.” Another resident said before realising that there was a fire, he heard a loud explosion and thought it was a gunshot.

“I heard boom! And by the time I get up from the hammock, I see a big flame, I ran out barefoot and realise there was a fire, but the breeze was so much that less than half an hour none of the buildings could have been saved,” the man living in Railway Street said.
He explained that many people were living in the apartment building where the fire occurred.
One resident from Sandy Babb Street said he experienced a power outage and later realised that there was a major fire in the area.
One of the occupants of the liquor shop (Sundeen Beer Garden) which has an upper-flat where the owner and family reside, said the entire ordeal was devastating and the businesswoman who owns the property was speaking to her insurance company.
He said millions of dollars in stocks went up in flames, while noting that the family recently installed a new kitchen that also cost millions.
Before the arrival of the fire tenders, neighbours said they heard loud explosions and initially thought they were gunshots.
Guyana Power Light officials were on the scene Thursday trying to remove a dangerously dangling utility pole that powered the entire block.
There were two trucks with many workers reconnecting burnt power lines attached to homes in the area.
Fire Chief Marlon Gentle said two firefighters sustained injuries during the operation.
Numerous fire tenders from stations across Georgetown visited the scene, but due to an absence of fire hydrants in that area, firefighters resorted to using water from the Vlissengen Road Canal.
He said the closeness of the buildings also fuelled the fire.