...wife leaps from house to escape inferno

An eighty-five-year old Corriverton man died during a fire at his home on Wednesday morning.

The fire, which started at approximately 0600hrs, claimed the life of Stanley Brown whose remains were removed by firefighters a few hours later from his Scottsburg, Corriverton, East Berbice Corentyne home.

According to information received, the fire started in Brown’s bedroom which was situated in the upper flat of the two storey, wooden and concrete structure. His wife Mervette Brown,77,  who slept in a back bedroom, was forced to jump out of a window to escape the inferno.

The Guyana Chronicle understands that the elderly man, who was an amputee, was unable to unlock his door which he usually locked from the inside with padlocks.

According to their grandson Tyrese Smith, who resided in the lower flat of the home, he was lying down the when he heard his grandfather calling out to the elderly woman.

He said he found it strange that the couple was up so early and he decided to investigate.

“ I run upstairs and then see the fire from the front and she was asking him for the keys because all the doors does be locked with padlocks. I run to the back door and try kick it down but I couldn’t then my neighbour and other persons try to help but the fire got really big but we still tried to break to down the door,” Smith said.

At that point, there was an explosion from a gas bottle and his grandmother jumped through a window to escape the blaze.

The woman explained that despite the heat and flames in the house, she tried to break  through a wall to create an exit for her husband. She also tried dousing the flames with water. After failing to extinguish the blaze, she jumped through the window to save her life.

The elderly man managed to crawl through the opening to reach the backdoor of the house, however, because of the grill and padlocks he became trapped inside of the burning house where he succumbed.

An investigation into the fire is underway.