A MAN in his early 60s is in police custody after he reportedly set his sister’s Alness Village, East Berbice, Corentyne home on fire Thursday night.

According to reports, around 22:00hrs, Mohaball Tulsi called “Sunny” broke the fence, gaining entry into the yard and lit a mattress aback the house.

The fire quickly spread to the house, and within minutes, the two-storied wooden building was reduced to ashes.

The property belonged to a sister-in-law of the accused, but was being kept by his sister, Darothy Nakhi called “Radica”. Nothing was saved and no one was home at the time of the incident.

Radica, 53, lived alone and at nights would sleep at a relative who lives in the same village.

According to a relative who spoke on condition of anonymity, Tulsi, who has had several brushes with the law, wanted to live in the home with Radica but the family objected.

Peeved by their response, the annoyed man reportedly swore to “destroy everything they get”.

In another incident a few years ago, he had set another relative’s home on fire but swift action by relatives and neighbours resulted in the building being saved with minor damage.

The detainee who was recently released from prison has reportedly admitted to relatives and villagers that he set the house alight.

Meanwhile, several residents of Alness Village criticised the Guyana
Fire Service (GFS) for arriving about an hour after the fire started.

“Calls were made to the Rose Hall Fire Station which is about 10 minutes away, yet they couldn’t reach here in time and when they finally did, the truck had to reverse to get water which took another 15 minutes. By the time they start their work, the only thing they could have saved was the fence,” one resident said.