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Pensioner’s house collapses at Enmore
Whether it was the heavy rains or just poor construction, Betlyn Singh, of Station Road, Enmore, East Coast Demerara, is now without a suitable place to live, after the structure which she inhabited came crashing down yesterday morning.
Luckily, Singh, a 62-year-old pensioner, who lives alone, was not in the house when tragedy struck around 09:00 hours.
Neighbours said that they heard a crashing sound, and upon checking, saw that Singh’s two-bedroom house had fallen.
One of the neighbours who gave his name as Brammo, and who lives on the opposite side of the road, told Kaieteur News that he and some of his friends were taking a drink when they heard a loud sound.
“I thought it was a truck crash into de hole in de road. Then me next partner say, ‘oh me God, watch Betlyn house fall down’.”
Thinking that the elderly woman was in the house, Brammo said he and his friends attempted to go inside, but backed off when they observed that the electrical wire that took current to the house was sparking and was still attached, and part of it was lying on the wet grass.
They immediately contacted the police and the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), but the response was frustratingly slow.
Meanwhile, neighbours who had contacted Singh’s daughter began a frantic search for the elderly woman, since no one saw her leaving the house.
But Singh told this newspaper that she had left home at around 06:30 hours to visit another relative in the village.
The collapsed house at Enmore
She said that she later learnt that her house had collapsed.
“Me neighbour call me and tell me, me house fall down. Dem think me been inside,” she stated.
Several neighbours had to console the elderly woman who was so shaken that she could hardly utter her responses to several questions from the media.
She said that she has been living at the house for more than 50 years.
Residents lamented the slow response of the GPL. They claimed that had the woman been trapped in the house, no one would have been able to save her since they were all afraid of being electrocuted.
Geeta Singh, the woman’s daughter, said that she was in Georgetown when she heard that her mother’s house had collapsed.
She said that when she arrived, no one knew if her mother was still in the house or under the building.
“Nobody couldn’t enter the house because dem afraid of de wire. However dey tek a chance and go around de wire and when we check, we say thank God she wasn’t inside,” Geeta Singh said.
This newspaper was at the scene for more than an hour and technicians from the GPL had not arrived when the media departed.
Kaieteur News understands that neighbours are making efforts to assist the pensioner to at least erect a structure from what could be salvaged from the building so that she can have a place to rest her head.
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