Latest update September 1st, 2024 12:39 AM
Oct 03, 2010 News
Eulene Williams thought that she had completely extinguished her kerosene stove after she had finished preparing a meal for her son early yesterday morning.
It was only after she felt heat coming from her bedroom and saws her mattress on fire that she realised that something was terribly wrong.
Williams, her four grandchildren and her son and his wife, are now homeless following a blaze which completely demolished her two flat wooden house at Friendship, East Coast Demerara.
The elderly woman, who was left with only the clothes she was wearing at the time, told this newspaper that she had returned from the Buxton Post Office after collecting her public assistance and had prepared lunch her grandson who subsequently left for work.
According to Williams, after cooking she would normally extinguish her stove and place it under her bed, out of the reach of her grandchildren.
Yesterday morning was no different except that the stove was not completely extinguished.
It was around 09:00 hours and the elderly woman was alone at home since the grandchildren had left the house.
“I feel a heat, so I look to see if anybody light fire under the platform. I did not see anything so I open the bedroom and I see the sponge on fire. I go and pick up a bucket water and call out me son friend fuh come and help me,” Williams told Kaieteur News.
Help did come but the neighbour pulled her from the blaze since the heat was now unbearable.
There was no nearby source of water so neighbours could only stare in shock as the wooden building was quickly consumed.
Rawle Holder, who lives in the house aback of the Williams recalled that he was about to take a bath when he heard Williams’ screams for help.
“When I go, the whole place on fire; all the roof top, everything, the two bedroom. She hustling fuh run inside fuh grab thing out, I had to get she out from de house. All I pulling she, she still hustling fuh go in de house. We couldn’t control de fire,” Holder said.
Firefighters from the Campbellville Fire Station were the first to respond but by that time all they could do was douse the embers.
Williams, who is hearing impaired, is appealing for assistance to at least make life less uncomfortable for her and her grandchildren.
Mineral and oil rich country borrowing to feed, clothe and house its citizens.
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