AN investigation has been launched into the origin of a fire which gutted a guest house in Line Path, Corriverton, East Berbice-Corentyne in the wee hours of Saturday.

According to the owner, Swarendra Sukhpaul, the building housed nine self-contained bedrooms, a restaurant and a bar.
Sukhpaul said the guest house, popularly known as ‘Embassy Building’, was unoccupied at the time of the fire. The distraught businessman said he received a telephone call from a neighbour who informed him the building was on fire.

As such, he left his Springlands residence and drove to the scene.
“When I arrived, I saw the fire service was there, they came on time and tried to extinguish the fire but had to make several trips to refill the water.”

Despite the brave efforts of the fire service, the entire top flat was completely destroyed leaving just the concrete frame of the lower flat. Sukhpaul was unable to pin a value to the loss suffered but noted it would run into several millions of dollars.

“I won’t be able to say how much but know it’s a lot because the rooms were all self-contained and fully furnished; nothing was saved so it will be millions in losses.”
The businessman believes the fire was electrical in nature since the area has been experiencing constant fluctuation in power over the past few days.