Wismar fire leaves 10 homeless, $$M in losses

Aug 28, 2009 News 0

Residents look on helplessly at the raging inferno

Yet another fire has struck at Linden, completely obliterating a house, and leaving a family of ten with only the clothes on their backs. In its wake all that remained was smouldering debris, an intact concrete fence, and an old shop-sign.
The building, which was owned by Varshnie and Joseph Fordyce, was located at Lot 101 Silver Town, Wismar.
Sixty-six year-old Joseph Fordyce, with tears streaming down his face, said he did not know what caused the fire, but pointed out that the disaster would be a huge setback for him.
“I don’t know where I’ll go from here, because I lost everything. The heat was so intense that we had to get out of there quickly, we didn’t have a chance to save anything,” a distraught Fordyce related.
Clad in just a pair of blue boxers, Fordyce later sat on the grass a little distance from what was once his home while friends and family tried valiantly to console him.
His 63-year-old wife, Varshnie, sat some distance away, on the lawns of a neighbour’s house, too distressed to go and view the remains of her house.
The Fordyces were reportedly in the top flat of the two-storeyed house watching television, when the fire started in the bottom flat. Two of their grandchildren were with them at the time. Ten persons occupied the building.
According to their 10-year-old grand daughter Crystal Orna, a student of the Watooka Day School, she was on her way back from the market when she saw the smoke, and heard a man saying, “go quick and see is who house burning”.

A distraught Joseph Fordyce

“I started to run and then I saw it was our house, and I started hollering and running. We lose everything; our books, bags and school clothes,” Crystal reported tearfully. The building, which was estimated at some $11 million, had been home to the Fordyces since 1982. Some family members were too upset to speak.
A shop was located in the lower flat until about three years ago, before it was converted into the kitchen and living room quarters, according to reports. Material to build another house at Amelia’s Ward for one of the Fordyce daughters, and which was stored in the bottom flat of the building, unfortunately also went up in smoke.
Meanwhile the Linden Fire Service, which arrived shortly after the blaze started, as usual ran out of water and had to source water from the Demerara River, but then a component on the fire engine malfunctioned, with the result that no water could be sprayed on the raging inferno.
By the time the problem was identified and fixed, the entire building was already engulfed.
Wismar residents condemned the apparent ineptitude of the fire service, pointing out, “If is nah de pint ah water wha’ dey does come wid run out, is something else.
This fire service ain’t serving no practical purpose, all dey does do, is cool down de place when de house dun bun!’’
Recently Linden has seen an increase in fires at Wismar, and the Linden Fire Service has come in for sharp criticism. Only a week ago, an elderly man at Block 22 lost his home, and about a month ago the popular Black Face Disco and Hotel was consumed by fire of unknown origin. In the latter case, the Fire Service had to leave the scene several times to source water, while the flames consumed the building.
Residents had condemned the absence of fire hydrants in the vicinity, and the Fire Service for a facility that fails to meet the needs of the people.
Additionally, residents have been calling for a fire station to be established at Wismar.