–Guyana Fire Service finds

THE Guyana Fire Service (GFS) has said that despite valiant efforts by fire fighters, the two Venezuelan women lost their lives due to the lack of alternative methods of escape, compounded by the extensive amount of security grilles on their Lot 136, Fifth Street, Alberttown, apartment complex.

The two women, whose bodies were found by firefighters on Thursday, were identified as 25-year-old Maria Lina Texidor, and 44- year-old Maria Patino Benjamin.
Residents on the scene had related to the media that when the fire fighters initially arrived on the scene at around 8:45hrs, there was “extreme difficulty” to get access to the building due to there being security grilles on all doors and windows of the complex.

The fire service further stated that the “poor” construction of the building did not possess the necessary fire safety mechanisms, and neither smoke alarms nor fire extinguishers were provided for the tenants of these apartments.

Investigations uncovered that there was only one way in and one way out of the four individual apartments.

“On arrival, the firefighters observed that the first floor of the building was engulfed in flames. Furthermore, it was observed that the windows and single door to the apartments were heavily fortified, that is to say they were fully grilled, which hampered firefighters from gaining access to the apartment in a timely manner,” the fire service said.

This was the case even though the water tenders that responded to the scene were fully equipped with the necessary tools and accessories to address the issue of entry into the building. The GFS also noted that on this occasion, there was never a shortage of water for firefighting, as open sources of water were used to extinguish the blaze.

The Fire Chief, Kalamadeen Edoo, on Thursday, spoke about the fire services’ difficulty in entering the building due to the security grills, stating that the fire fighters had to “break down” the outer door and then the grilles before gaining entry into the building that was being ravaged by the flames.

“On arrival, it was observed that the first floor of the two-storey building was engulfed, so immediately fire fighter mode was put into operation but it was difficult for fire fighters to get access to the building because the entire building was grilled.

“We had to break the door and there were two doors, the grille door and the wood door, we had to get access to it and as the fire fighters entered the building, that is where they discovered one of the bodies that was laying on the bed and the other one was at the back of the building,” he said.