Fire destroys New Amsterdam house
Alana Joseph (centre) and two of her colleagues from the New Amsterdam Municipality, who paid her a visit to see what assistance they could render
Alana Joseph (centre) and two of her colleagues from the New Amsterdam Municipality, who paid her a visit to see what assistance they could render

–children among six left homeless

A FIRE of unknown origin early Sunday morning destroyed a two-storey wooden and concrete house in King Street, New Amsterdam, Berbice, leaving three children and three adults homeless, and millions of dollars in losses. The uninsured property was owned by 84-year-old Doreen Thom, who lived on the upper flat with her niece, 40-year-old Alana Joseph and her three children.
The lower flat was occupied by one Redeson Jarvis, who is currently abroad. Joseph, who is the Town Engineer (ag) of New Amsterdam, said she awoke just around 04:30h on Sunday after

What’s left of the King Street, New Amsterdam property after Sunday morning’s fire

feeling an extreme heat.

That’s when she realised that there was a fire in her bedroom, and immediately alerted Ms. Doreen and her children so they could get out while they could. The fire service was alerted, too, but when they arrived, they found it difficult to source water from a nearby fire hydrant. And as firemen tried to get water from an open source, the fire continued to rage, and quickly spread to other parts of the building. By the time they did manage to source some water from Republic Canal, the entire upper flat was already gone, and nothing could be salvaged.
Although the bottom flat was partially destroyed, but most articles were water soaked. At the time of the incident, the family was unable to assess the total cost for the damages incurred, but noted that the house was fully furnished, and electricity was sourced from Guyana Power and Light Inc.  Investigations are ongoing.

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