Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 07, 2013 News
Seventeen persons, among them eight children, are now homeless following a suspicious fire which ripped through two wooden houses and scorched another on Camp Street yesterday. When Kaieteur News arrived on the scene scores of persons had gathered in the parking lot of the Guyana Revenue Authority and around the street.
The parking lot was the scene of another fire a few years ago and the victims were same owners of the properties that went up in flames yesterday.
According to an eyewitness, Dillon Frazer, who said that he was riding along the street, said that he was startled by the sight of smoke billowing from both houses and a woman calling for help at the other house.
“When I ride through the street I see smoke start coming through the roof and the people dem inside start run out. People go over in the next house and start tek out the things,” the man said.
He added that a young woman and baby wrapped in a white cloth were rescued from the house while other persons, including a number of young children were also saved from the building which had already engulfed in flames.
“The people de screaming when they come out of the house but they had another old lady been in the next house. So two boys run in and bring she down the step,” the man added.
A woman who lived in the house where the fire started said that all she was able to save was bag with some clothes and the attire she was left with. “I was in the kitchen cutting up some chicken when I hear me nephew and he three friends them calling for me son,” Vanessa Collymore-Fortune said.
The woman noted that her brother who previously owned the home might have had an agreement with a Water Street businessman whose associates had visited them last December, claiming that the entire lot was owned by the man and that they should remove from the premises.
“I know my God is big and I will be standing firm because is my own and I ain’t giving nothing up. They got to kill me for it,” said Collymore-Fortune.
The woman said that she hired a lawyer to look into the matter and to have it resolved “once and for all”. She added that although most of her personal documents were destroyed in the blaze, she still has the documents for the house and land she owns at present.
Junior Hendricks one of the young men who helped rescue the elderly woman, said, “We and three other young men broke down the door and saw the woman trying to get out as smoke filled the house.”
“I been at the head of the road with some boys and when we look up the in the air we see the black smoke start full up the sky so we run down the road and see the girl with the baby crying in front the first house,” Hendricks said.
He added that after persons related to them that the woman was still trapped in the house they immediately broke into the house and brought her down the stairs; placing her in a nearby car where she remained and watched as flames started to scorch her home.
“We rush to get her to out of the house because the entire place is wood and then boards from the other house start collapsing”, the young man said. Hendricks added that during the rescue effort an electric wire which was attached to one of the houses broke away from the lantern pole sending dozens of spectators running for their lives.
The 69 year-old woman Jacquelyn Swartz who thanked God for saving her said she was watching one of her favourite television shows when she was alerted by the neighbour next door.
“She keep shouting ‘Miss Schwartz’ and I kept saying ‘yes’ but it was like she didn’t hearing me and then I saw the thick smoke coming through the back entrance. So I tried to make my way out when two young men help me down the stairs,” the woman said.
The woman who resided at the home for the past 37 years said that she lived with her daughter-in-law, son and a cousin.
The woman however said that two months ago a well known businessman tried to buy the property because he had previously purchased the area from the late Ricardo Rodrigues.
“I showed him my transport then he realized he had no grounds, so he left and then is when the whole nightmare began…” the distraught woman said.
Saving only a small Vaseline container which contained some gold jewelry and the clothes on her skin, Margo Elias said that she was unaware how the fire started.
“I hear a big boom and I run out of the middle house where I lived and all I see was fire. “I ain’t know how the fire start but all I know I hear something explode and I see people running and a girl running with her baby. I thought was a fight then I see smoke and I run out behind them” the woman lamented.
Some of the occupants not at home at the time the fire eventually arrived on the scene. A scene of chaos erupted after one woman who walked around as if she was looking for something kept screaming, “Where is she?”
A few minutes later she was then reunited with her relative.
The Guyana Fire Service who was said to have arrived 40 minutes late was able to save the third structure and the other two houses. The smell of Pitch Pine wood was present in the area and this suggested that the houses were built a number of years ago.
Within 15 minutes, both wooden structures were destroyed. The families estimated their loss to be in the millions of dollars.
Another sister, Yvette Collymore, said that the family was on high alert since last week. The woman said that since they received threats last year December they were very cautious. She told Kaieteur News that last week they saw a young man suspiciously wandering around the yard. Collymore said that after the man saw he was being watched he left.
The woman said that the family always lived in fear that one day those threats would become reality. Police are conducting investigations into the fire.
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Apr 19, 2024
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