Unattended lighted gas stove guts Stewartville home

Three persons were left homeless after fire razed a wooden building at Stewartville Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara after midday yesterday.
According to one of the occupants of the home, Rohanie, she left a pot on the stove unattended and a towel next to the stove caught fire. She said that the fire eventually spread to the rest of the wooden house.

Relatives and neighbours try to console “Rohanie” who was hysterical after the house caught afire

She said that after noticing the fire she rushed to get her retarded relative out of the house. She could not do much else.  The fire quickly engulfed the house before she could have tried to contain the fire.
“We got to sleep on the road now. We ain’t got nowhere to go…We had DVD, TV, fridge and everything else. All get damage,” one of the victims, Ganesh, said
Relatives said that the wooden house was almost 70 plus years old. This contributed to the rapid spread of the fire. It was also noted that millions of dollars in items were destroyed although residents assisted in salvaging a few items.
According to people in the neighbourhood two of the occupants of the house were intoxicated, when the fire erupted.
One resident said that the sugar estate fire tenders responded to the fire.
According to firemen attached the Leonora Fire Station, the fire tenders had water when they visited the scene of the fire in Stewartville. However there was a problem; the hoses were clogged.