By Richard Bhainie

A MATHEMATICS teacher attached to the country’s premier education institution, Queen’s College, is now homeless after an early-morning fire of unknown origin ravaged her home.

Homeless is Ms. Johan Claudia Osborne, along with her 12-year-old son, her mother and father and four siblings, all whom resided at the Lot 204 19th Street Dazzell Housing Scheme property.

According to Ms. Osborne, the two-storey building became engulfed between 03:00hrs to 04:00hrs Saturday morning in her brother’s bedroom, located at the front of the house.

Her brother was awoken to the fire which led to him sounding an alarm, awaking the rest of the household.

She explained that her family doused the flames with water in an attempt to put out the fire; however, the smoke became unbearable to the extent where they could not breathe and they were forced to escape the blaze.

Ms. Osborne and her family suffered millions of dollars in losses as they were unable to save anything. She was particularly worried about her work stored on her laptop.

“As a teacher, I’m thinking about all the PowerPoints I have to go back and do, my son lost everything including his textbooks,” she said.

She explained that the support extended to her from friends and colleagues have been tremendous, for which she is grateful. The Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, has also pledged to render assistance.

However, Ms. Osborne expressed disappointment with the Guyana Fire Service which took approximately 20 minutes to respond and upon arrival at the location, there was no water available to put out the blaze.

Anyone willing to render assistance to Ms. Osborne and her family may contact her on telephone number 679 /6884 or may make a contribution to the Citizens Bank Account No. 219203822.