Rosignol woman dies in blaze

Jan 08, 2009 News

ROSIGNOL, WEST BANK BERBICE – An early morning blaze, at Cabbage Factory Street, a few yards from the Rosignol Ferry Stelling, left one woman dead early yesterday morning.

Dead: Omawattie, also known as Leila

The victim, Omawattie, also known as Leila, who was said to be in her 40s, was unemployed and resided with her husband.
However, at the time of the incident she was said to be alone since her husband, a fisherman, is reportedly at sea.
The dead woman’s sister, Nadira Lindie, of Welcome Street, Rosignol, said that the woman was last seen on Tuesday when she spent the day with her daughter at Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice, and later visited another sister at Rosignol.
Nadira Lindie said she did not know her sister’s surname, “She recently marry this man and me ain’t know he name.”
Commenting on the incident she recalled, “What I heard this morning (Wednesday) is somebody calling here by we, they hollering for Mr. Lindie at about four o’clock. I get up and check and the boy seh, ‘Leila house on fire!’ I ask he where she deh he seh he ain’t know. The place dark and I ain’t seeing he face.”
According to Mrs. Lindie, she is not enjoying the best of health. Her husband, Lionel Lindie, continued, “He run out to Leila house. When they go, the house did already burn flat. The people by the snackettes on the (Rosignol Ferry) Stelling say it burn fast– within half hour.”
The time she spent waiting on word from her husband on her sister’s fate was killing her, Mrs Lindie said. “Me bin praying that she didn’t deh in the house. Me husband come back and I ask he if she deh in the house and he seh the policeman tell he they see something like somebody in the house but they couldn’t go in.”
At day clean the family returned to the scene of the fire and then they saw what appeared to be the remains of a human being.
Nadira Lindie recounted that what is suspected to be the remains of her sister was gathered together and placed in a jute bag and taken to the morgue at the Fort Wellington Hospital. “They say they find she with she face down and one of she hands behind she back, right beside the bed.”
Nadira Lindie insisted that her sister was a peaceful person with no known enemies or problems. She is convinced that foul play is the reason Omawattie is dead. “The house was no big house – poor people house – just flat. If she see fire in the house is not that she can’t jump through the window, the house flat.”
Lionel Lindie said that the person who informed them of the fire lives in a similar structure just alongside the burnt one.
“He saying he see the blaze at three o’clock and that he run down to the stelling and try to get them snackette people fuh help he. But a guard at a nearby factory say there was no fire at three o’clock. He did leaving work and shortly after he hear something go ‘Pow!’ It went off three times like – Pow! Pow! Pow! And when he check he see the fire.”
They claimed that persons around attempted to form a bucket brigade but it was too late.
Omawattie had been residing at that location for the past four years and was said to be the owner of the structure. The woman is survived by a daughter who is said to be in her early 20s.
For the Guyana Fire Service, this had to be treated as a late fire call. There are no fire stations in West Berbice and as such, the Guyana Sugar Corporation renders assistance. A team from the New Amsterdam Fire Department responded later yesterday. Up to late afternoon the investigators were still at the scene and the findings were unknown.
The West of Berbice falls under the New Amsterdam Fire Department and that blaze was the only one for this year so far in the New Amsterdam district.
At Corriverton there were two fire calls, both relating to some fault in the electrical system. No building was destroyed. (Melissa Johnson)