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71-year-old burnt to death in Buxton/Friendship
Fire struck with devastating effect in Friendship, East Coast Demerara last night, and when the final flames were extinguished, shocked villagers had their worst fears confirmed as the charred remains of former school teacher Dolly Trim, 71, lay among the debris.
The fire began at about 22:00 hours and quickly consumed the one-storey Friendship house, trapping inside the elderly woman who lived alone.
Even the efforts of a senior firefighter who lives opposite Trim, along with other villagers could not save her.
From all appearances, the pensioner was desperately trying to escape from the house, but eyewitnesses believe that the heavy grill work hampered her efforts.
While the blaze was being attended to by firemen of the GUYSUCO and Guyana Fire Services, scores of villagers held their breaths, hoping desperately that the woman was not inside.
No one heard her screams.
When the blaze was finally brought under control, anxious villagers, many of whom Trim had taught at the Bladen Hall Secondary School, began using flashlights to locate the body which they had come to accept was trapped in the blaze.
Cadet Officer Andrew Lewis of the Guyana Fire Service, who lives opposite the now dead teacher, said that efforts to save the woman could have been successful if a proper alarm was raised.
He told this newspaper that he was in his house when he heard the incessant honking of a mini bus horn.
He said that the fire had started and the driver of the bus was apparently trying to alert people. But according to the fire officer, he thought that the bus was trying to attract the attention of someone in a house nearby.
However, when the honking continued with no end in sight, he was forced to get up.
Upon peering outside he immediately saw that his neighbour’s house was on fire. Grabbing his firefighting gear, which he had at his home, the fire officer and a few other persons went into operation.
Since the fire appeared to be mainly at the front of the house, the helpers went to the back door, which they found open.
“We jump over the gate and reach the back door. We pushed the door and started calling for a torchlight. The whole house was in darkness, so you had to get a torch light. Within seconds the whole place just engulfed. We try to push out a gas stove and a bottle and we had to just retreat,” Lewis told this newspaper.
He said that, while in the house, although he did not hear Trim call for help, he was certain that she was there.
“It is more than likely that she would have been in the house. She don’t go nowhere. She lives by herself. By six o’clock she in her house. But I was still hoping that she gone somewhere,” Lewis explained.
Other villagers tried desperately with buckets, but their efforts were all in vain.
He lamented the way the alarm was raised and suggested that people should be more decisive when raising a fire alarm.
“This guy that was blowing, he was the first person that observed the fire. If he had come out of his vehicle and shouted, ‘Fire!!’ Buddy, you can’t blow, blow and nobody know what you blowing about,” the Cadet Officer said.
A while after the fire had been extinguished, three jeep loads of ranks from the Joint Services arrived on the scene.
The Police, along with their Fire Service counterparts, have launched an investigation to determine the cause of the fire.
Villagers say that Dolly Trim was single and had no children.
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