Fire guts Industry home

Apr 20, 2009 News

By Rustom Seegopaul

The usual Sunday calm at Industry, East Coast Demerara, was shattered after a fire of suspected electrical origin, razed the Lot 5 First Street, Industry Housing Scheme home of Ganga Bachain and Inderdai Bahadur, yesterday afternoon.

The now homeless family.

Bahadur said that she had just finished bathing her two daughters, 5-year-old Maleesa and 2-year-old Sophie, when she saw the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) wire leading to her house sparking.

She went outside to look and almost immediately went back inside to take her children to safety.

By this time, the house had already begun to burn.

The family escaped unharmed but Bahadur said all their belongings went up in flames.

“I didn’t have time to save anything,” she sobbed.

“I just hustled to get my two kids out, and everything else was burnt.”

When the fire started, Bahadur’s reputed husband was in Turkeyen selling vegetables.

When the news reached him, Bachain said that he immediately dropped what he was doing and rushed home.

By then the fire had already engulfed the house.

Both Bachain and Bahadur are at a loss since they have nowhere to stay. Added to this, today marks the first day of school after the Easter holidays and their daughter, Maleesa, is supposed to go to school.

Her school uniforms, books and other school supplies were all destroyed.

Neighbours reported that the area had been without power for a considerable period of time and said that the fire started shortly after power was restored. Persons living close by to the now razed house have said that they often suffer from fluctuations in low and high voltage.

“We always get low voltage, or high voltage,” said one resident.

“It was only a matter of time before some house in Industry burn down because of this.”

Bahadur said that she hopes some sort of compensation or assistance will be given to her so that she can reconstruct the humble home she once had. However, she is unsure when and if any help will reach her.

She said that until she finds somewhere else to stay, she would live with her sister, who also lives in the Industry Housing Scheme.

Neighbours alleged that the Guyana Fire Service arrived late.

“They (Fire Service) reach here when the house done burn down flat already,” said one neighbour.

This, like many of the fires on the East Coast Demerara before it, have prompted residents to again issue calls to have the Guyana Fire Service decentralized.