FIVE persons, including a six-year-old, are now homeless following a fire that gutted a two-storey wooden building at Lot 520 North East La Penitence, Georgetown in the wee hours of Thursday morning.

According to Rufina Leitch, the owner of the building lives overseas and the upper flat where the fire started was occupied by two elderly relatives of the landlord who would visit the country for holiday.

Leitch said the entire family was asleep when the fire occurred at around 03:30hrs.

“And we hear a big scrambling and tumbling upstairs, so I say it got to be thief but then is when I hear my neighbour next door run out and holler is fire and when I run out and look upstairs, I saw the blaze,” she said.

Leitch lives with her two sons, her mother and brother in the bottom flat of the house. Almost all valuables in the upper flat of the property were destroyed and water soaked the lower flat, she said.

Firefighters arrived promptly on the scene and brought the fire under control.

When contacted, Fire Chief Marlon Gentle said the two elderly persons living upstairs, who were identified as 66-year-old Brenda Tindell and 63-year-old Burnish Bharrat, were rescued by residents in the area who used a ladder to get them to safety.

The two women were treated at a city hospital for smoke inhalation and minor injuries. According to the fire chief, the fire started as a result of a lighted candle in the upper-flat of the house.