– 4-year-old among five homeless

A FIRE of unknown origin, on Sunday afternoon, completely gutted a two-storey wooden and concrete house at Lot 62 Norton Street, Lodge, Georgetown, and, a as a result, five persons have been rendered homeless.

Head of the Guyana Trans United, Quincy McEwan, resided at the property with her four-year-old son and three adults but the house is owned by her brother, Calvin Waterton.
A distraught McEwan told the Guyana Chronicle that she was in the yard doing laundry at around 14:45h when she noticed fire in the backroom located on the upper flat.
The fire also destroyed a shop at the property and scorched a neighbouring house.

“It happened so fast,” McEwan said, adding that she was unable to save anything from the house, leaving them with millions of dollars in losses. They, however, managed to save a television set and a refrigerator from the shop.
McEwan said they were all in the yard when the fire started.

“I was at home. I was downstairs soaking clothes; my friend was cooking; I went on the phone inviting my friend for some food and I hear ‘pow!’ and when I hear the pow, I raise my head same time to know what is going on upstairs. When I look up, I see fire coming from the backroom, that’s all I know,” McEwan told this newspaper.

McEwan has been living at the property for over 23 years. Meanwhile, quick action by the Guyana Fire Service prevented the house on the western side from being destroyed.
Deputy Fire Chief, Kamaladeen Edoo, who was at the scene, told the media that three fire service vehicles were dispatched to take control of the fire after the report was received.
According to Edoo, by the time the firefighters showed up, the house was already engulfed in flames and the top floor of the building had already caved in.

The Guyana Trans United is an advocacy group whose main goals are to improve the quality of life of trans Guyanese and to ensure that their rights are recognised and upheld in all domains.