THE suspected arsonist is still at large after the fire that gutted the Javis’ house and the dwelling next door, leaving about eight persons homeless on Tuesday night, following a domestic dispute.
Police said the fire reportedly started at about 22:00hrs when the 44-year-old musician had a domestic dispute with his wife, Joan Javis, 37, and there was a scuffle before he attempted to douse her with gasoline.
In her bid to escape a fiery death, she jumped through a window on the lower flat of the two-storey concrete house and escaped.
The suspect then in a fit of rage reportedly poured gasoline in a section of the building, set it alight and then fled the scene. He was still at large up to press time.
Police said the victim, Joan Javis, received minor injuries and is hospitalised in a stable condition.
When the Guyana Chronicle visited the scene on Wednesday, 78-year-old Ovid Stewart who resided at the corner of De Abreu and Da Silva Streets, Kitty, had his nieces and nephews trying to salvage whatever they could from the flooded and destroyed lower flat of the two-storey concrete house where he was a tenant.
He said that at about 10:30hrs, he was in bed and heard what sounded like squibs and thought that the children in the neighbourhood were up to no good. However, he opened his eyes after hearing sounds outside his window and saw the conflagration next door.
The re-migrant added that he could not save anything but his own life by rushing through the door as the fire was spreading very quickly with the house next door being totally engulfed.
The elderly man reported that he remigrated to his homeland in 2004 and had been renting the lower flat of the house since his return here, calling it his ‘retirement home,’ but all was lost on Tuesday night.
Stewart said his landlady, a mother of three, Adunni Orderson and her mother resided in the top flat of the house and they too lost everything.
He told this publication that the incident is most unfortunate and like most neighbours, he too said that the couple, the Javises, always had loud quarrels and fights and on Tuesday night they did not find it anyway unusual.
It was not until the fire erupted that they became aware that something had gone terrible wrong within that household. He told the Guyana Chronicle that if two people cannot get along they should move on and settle their differences constructively instead of resorting to violence and arson.
Stewart added that he is also the guardian of an elderly uncle who is in his late 90s and is being forced to stay with him until he finds a suitable place of abode, since he wants to live alone and spend his days reading novels and books of interest.
Stewart said fortunately he has fire insurance and he is hoping the company will compensate him as a result of the fire which has reduced his apartment to a pile of rubble.
Neighbours said they were not surprised something as tragic as a fire had occurred on Tuesday night since the couple were always fighting but it was unfortunate that the neighbours also lost their home.
Officials from the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) said they received a fire call and when they responded, the dwelling house was already totally alight and they tried to save the other building by containing the blaze.
