An 82-year- old man died after a fire of unknown origin ripped through his Kildonan Village, house early Monday morning.

Dead is Rudolph Ross called “Uncle Bruce”; his charred remains were found lying by a window on the eastern side of the two storey wooden and concrete structure. Ross resided with his son Colin Ross, who was not at home at the time of the fire and efforts are being made to locate him. The fire reportedly started at 03:00hrs in the kitchen, located in the upper flat of the house.

A neighbour, Brian Jackson, 41, told Guyana Chronicle that he was awoken by loud cries for help from the elderly man. Jackson said he immediately summoned help and a bucket brigade was  formed in an  effort to save the elderly man, who was trapped due to grill work, the thick smoke and intense heat.

“About 3’0 clock this morning I hear someone shouting for help. I hear ‘Brian Help! Brian help!’ and I got up and see the fire coming from the back of Cousin Rudolph house. I hurry get out and start to holler for help in the street then the other neighbours came out. We tried our best to get him out of the building, we tried; we break the window where he was calling from but the grill wasn’t opening, and I was going up to ladder, the fire came closer to him and I heard he stopped calling out. Then the fire spread bigger and we had to hold back,” Jackson told this newspaper.

As the fire spread, Jackson’s house was scorched. According to the distraught man, he only saw Ross yesterday when he [Ross] called him to assist in planting a tree; Jackson said Ross was in “good spirits.”

“A while now he was asking me to help him plant a cherry tree, so he call me yesterday [Sunday] and say you must come to plant it… so I went over and we plant it and the last thing he said to me was as long as he live he will take care of the tree. I know I try my best to save him but my best wasn’t enough …my best wasn’t enough at all. I couldn’t save Cousin Rudolph”, an emotional Jackson recalled.

Meanwhile, neighbours lamented the late arrival of the fire service. They said efforts were made to contact the fire service but calls to the Berbice Fire Stations went unanswered.

“We tried all the numbers up here, then we end up calling Georgetown, then they got on to them and when they come is like an hour and half after …they have to do better than that man.”

Rudolph Ross was described as an avid church member and a respectable individual in the community. He once served as the Overseer of the Bush Lot / Adventure Neighborhood Democratic Council.