–to help pick up the pieces after the fire earlier in the month

A TOTAL of 28 girls are now in urgent need of clothing after a fire demolished an upstairs section of the Shaheed’s Girls Orphanage, located at Oleander Gardens, East Coast Demerara, earlier this month.

According to Acting Fire Chief Kalamadeen Edoo, the fire was caused by a faulty electrical ceiling fan in the orphanage’s dressing room.
Word is that one of the facility’s elderly caretakers was alerted about the fire by one of the young residents who noticed smoke coming from the small room. A closer look revealed that a fire was in progress, and the Fire Service was immediately summoned.

The firemen reportedly arrived promptly and managed to contain the small blaze in record time.
Thankfully, no injuries were reported, as the caretakers were successful in getting all of the orphanage’s young residents, aged three to 17, to safety.
However, the dressing room, which housed all the girls’ clothing and toiletries, as well as the surrounding walls and a section of the roof did not fare so well.
“We usually need public assistance, but of course, we didn’t anticipate this,” said the facility’s director, Raheema Rahaman, adding: “Now we have to get the roof and the walls fixed. For the dressing room and that area to be fixed back, it’s going to be a lot of money. The girls need clothing as well.”
Noting that as a result of the mishap, they’re now forced to seek public assistance for the girls, Company Secretary, Merissa Permaul said: “The only clothes they have left is the ones that are hung out on the line; and it’s only a few pieces.”

Said Sharia Yasin-Bacchus, one of the board members who manage the orphanage, “Nobody’s injured; but they’re scared, I imagine. We had ‘Child Services’ over here to make sure they’re okay… so they should be back over here, in their home.”

Unfortunately, this was not the first time such an incident has occurred at the orphanage, as back in October 2018, the orphanage had suffered a more severe loss when the building was gutted by a fire that started in the lower flat of the building. Since its reconstruction in 2019, the orphanage has not had any major fires.
“It’s very unfortunate,” Rahaman lamented, in a brief interview with this publication. “I can only hope that we get the assistance we need,” she added.