By Jeune Bailey Vankeric

TWO pensioners are now homeless after their home at Fort Ordinance, East Canje, was destroyed by fire on Thursday afternoon.

A bedridden Chandradat Ramkishun, age 63, was spared a fiery death as neighbours rushed to his assistance after they heard the screams of his niece who was caring for him.
In tears, his wife, Sati Ramkishun, aged 60, pleaded with the public for help so that she can rebuild her home.

“Anything, I gon take. Galvanize sheet, clothes. I have on the same clothes from yesterday, pampers for my husband, bed, anything,” she said in tears when she spoke to this newspaper.

Recalling the ordeal, she said after paying her bills and purchasing some essential items she was returning home in a car when the driver observed a house was on fire.

“I looked and saw fire billowing in the sky. I quickly paid the driver and exited the vehicle. It was my home which was on fire. We lived there for thirteen years. In a moment, I watched everything destroyed. My husband was so lucky to be alive. I thank God,” the teary-eyed pensioner said.

After enquiring what had transpired, she was told that her two grandchildren, ages six and three years, had taken toilet tissue, rolled it as a cigarette and had lit it. The object fell and the house caught fire.

The elderly man’s niece heard the sounds of smoldering wood and on checking, she saw the blaze. Neighbours responded and lifted the elderly man to safety. The man is a former broiler with the now defunct Rose Hall Sugar Estate.
P

ersons interested in assisting the family can contact them on 653-0807.