Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 13, 2015 News
By Desilon Daniels
It was pandemonium last night when fire broke out at a William Street, Kitty home, leaving 11 homeless and several others picking up the pieces of their damaged homes.
Hundreds gathered along William, Alexander, and David Streets to catch a glimpse of the house on fire.
The fire, which erupted around 5pm, quickly tore through the two-storey building, leaving nothing behind.
One of the now homeless persons is Ronel Griffith, 36. Griffith, who lived with his wife and two small children, was the owner of the house in his mother’s absence.
In darkness, due to the lack of electricity, he explained that he was actually at home when the fire began.
“I was right upstairs but it start from downstairs,” he said. “Me ain’t know how it really start. All I saw was the fire coming up the stairs from downstairs.” He said that it was the smell of smoke that alerted his entire family that something was wrong.
“I jump up and see the smoke but by time I run downstairs the fire been done start blaze up.”
By then, one of his tenants who lived downstairs was also alerted to the fire. The other tenants who lived in the apartment where the fire began had not been home at the time.
“We couldn’t grab anything. We just run out and see the fire from the one side. It wasn’t big when we noticed but by time some guys came in and kick open the door it start to blaze up more and there was nothing we could do. We just needed to get out of there,” he said.
He said that his tenants also had three young children in total, none older than 10.
“Right now I’m just surprised because I have no idea what could’ve started this. No one was home as far as I know and I didn’t see any sparking [of wires] or anything.”
He said that the most he can do now is stay with relatives and try to figure out his next move.
Griffith, who is a businessman, explained that he distributed drinks and snacks. He estimated his losses to be in the millions of dollars. “The goods them alone were anything near $12M,” he said. “By time we run out, we couldn’t go in so we only have the clothes on our backs.”
They were all instead forced to helplessly stand by as bucket brigades unsuccessfully attacked the fire.
The Guyana Fire Service eventually came some 25 minutes after the fire would have started.
When Kaieteur arrived on the scene, about two dozen fire officials were attacking the fire, both from the northern (William Street) and the southern (David Street) ends of the building. There were three fire trucks on the scene.
During the initial stages, everything seemed under control and the fire was showing promise of being extinguished quickly. However, the Fire Service ran into trouble when the onsite trucks ran out of water.
A fire official explained that though the trucks initially had water, it was quickly exhausted. Attempts were made to pump water from a nearby trench which was too clogged. Efforts to use fire hydrants also proved unsuccessful.
With no water available, the fire quickly blazed once more, fiercer than before. New concerns arose; the home was in close proximity to a number of other houses. As the fire roared, other homeowners feared that their homes were in danger. Bucket brigades were formed on William and Alexander Streets and persons doused their homes with water in an attempt to keep the fire from spreading.
“Look how duh fire ketching! Soak de house, soak de house!” were the screams of many as men on rooftops, equipped with their buckets of water, splashed a small nearby wooden house.
After some time the fire was eventually controlled after fire officials got water from a canal on Vlissingen Road. They had been forced to connect hoses all the way from David Street to Vlissingen Road to get a viable water source. A fire hydrant on the corner of Alexander and William Streets was also utilized.
Though the fire did not spread, some homes sustained water damage. These homeowners are now trying to pick up the pieces of their homes.
Meanwhile, while some had praise for the Guyana Fire Service others were clearly displeased with their performance.
A man, who was standing next to a fire truck was heard shouting, “If y’all de come early, this fire cudda done; this is nonsense. Now these people lose all dem things.” Others accused the trucks of not coming with enough water.
On the other hand, there were those who believed that the fire officials had done a commendable job.
Kevin, a Kitty resident, explained that, after using all the water, the firefighters had to seek other ways of accumulating more water since most of the water hydrants in the area were not functioning.
“They did a commendable job. They managed to keep the fire under control even though they were not able to put it out,” he said. He said that the fire could have easily spread to nearby houses because of the proximity.
He said that the non-working water hydrant also played a part in the amount of time firefighters took to extinguish the blaze.
Up to press time, the cause of the fire remained unknown.
(Additional reporting by Feona Morrison)
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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