A YOUNG couple is now homeless after a gas bottle exploded on Friday morning. Steven Warner and his wife were at their Lot 20 Independence Boulevard, Punt Trench, Albouystown home when the explosion occurred.

Warner, who suffered minor burns due to the explosion and fire, stated that when he heard the explosion between 9:00-9:30 hours, his wife, along with two children who are relatives of couple, were in house at the time of the explosion.

According to Warner, his wife was in the kitchen cooking while he was in the bathroom. “I come out to bathe this morning while I come out fi bathe them girls went inside cooking, all I hear is ‘boom’, when I run back inside the whole house with fire. They had two children, I just had to try to save them and save the house,” Warner said.

He added that soon after raising the alarm, other residents jumped into swift action and called the fire service and formed a bucket brigade to out the flames. Warner’s sister-in-law, who requested to remain anonymous, told the Guyana Chronicle that she was at her home resting next door when she heard a loud explosion and quickly rushed outside to investigate where the loud sound came from.

“I went lay down and all I hear is ‘boosh’, when I run out all I see Steven running out so and hollering fire, fire, fire. I run for a bucket, all I see was the whole of the wall blazing up so everybody run with bucket and start throwing, we trying for out the fire but the fire keep blazing up,” she stated.

The woman, who was still shaken by the events, told this publication that with the help of neighbours and other residents, who formed a bucket brigade, they managed to save the structure from being fully engulfed by flames.

“Eventually we get to out the fire and pull out the gas bottle and disconnect the head from it and that’s how the fire end up outing.” Warners wife, along with the two children who were in the house at the time, were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) where they received treatment for minor burns.