Fire destroys home of visually impaired association official

Aug 06, 2020 News

President of the Guyana Association for the Visually Impaired (GAVI), Leon Amsterdam, 61, and his family, lost their Stanleytown, West Bank Demerara (WBD) home two Sundays ago to fire.

Amsterdam’s house in flames

The remains of the house

Amsterdam’s two-storey wooden and concrete house went up in flames at around 01:00hrs that day.
Kaieteur News understands that Amsterdam, who is also visually impaired, was at his sister’s house when his house caught afire.
According to his sister, Ann, it was a female neighbour who had alerted them that her brother’s house was on fire.
The neighbour awoke to the sound of a loud car horn being tooted repeatedly. She (the neighbour) peeped out her window and saw a car parked in front of her house. Someone from inside the car then shouted: “Look that house next to you burning down from the back.”
The woman panicked when she heard this. She immediately ran out of the house and made her way to Ann’s place, which was a short distance away.
By the time Ann and her brother arrived, the building was completely engulfed in flames. An emergency call was made to the fire department and firefighters came shortly after to contain the blaze.
Ann told Kaieteur News that her brother lost everything but thanked God that he nor his wife or their two adult children and young grandchild were not at home when the fire started.
She recalled that on the Saturday before, his children and grandchild had left the house to spend time with other relatives in Georgetown.
Also later that afternoon, his wife journeyed to spend the night with an ill relative in Patentia. Amsterdam did not want to be alone at home so he decided to sleep over at her place.