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Three homeless after fire at Foulis
– arson suspected
Police on the East Coast of Demerara and the Guyana Fire Service have launched an investigation into a fire that destroyed a one-flat house at 19th Street, Foulis on Monday night.
Jasmattie Ali
As a result Mangal Budram, 47, his wife Jasmattie Ali, and their one-year-old baby are now homeless.
However, the police have since taken Ali into police custody.
On Monday evening Ali said that the fire started some time after 22:00 hours while she was asleep at a neighbour’s house.
According to Ali, she was out earlier in the day and when she returned she was told that her husband had taken the child to his mother’s house.
The woman said once she found out that her daughter was fine she went at a neighbour who lives across the road from her to spend the night.
Ali said some time after 22:00 hours she retired to bed but was awaken by screams.
“After me hear dat me husband carry de baby by he mother he ain’t go back to de house, de house nah got electricity, and me ain’t even light de lamp,” Ali lamented.
She added that after she heard persons screaming for fire she got up and looked out only to see her house going up in flames.
Ali added that persons in the area quickly formed a bucket brigade as another neighbour called the fire service.
However, the efforts of the public-spirited citizens were in vain because the house was burnt flat. By the time the fire tender got to the location, the house was nothing but rubble. Nothing was saved
The husband, Mangal Budram, said that when he went home he found his wife drinking with the neighbours. He said that his daughter was home alone, naked, so he picked her up and took her to his mother’s.
He said that later that evening he got a report that his house had been torched. He raced over and saw that the report was true.
It was not yet day clean that he learnt that the fire might have been the result of arson. The neighbour where his wife spent the afternoon and early evening imbibing has a son named Seecharran Harrinarine.
This lad told the police that he was in his parent’s house when he happened to see Ali sneaking outside and going across to her house. He added that he saw her spread something and soon after the house went up in flames. He added that the woman then stumbled back to his parents’ home.
The lad said that his parents had all fallen asleep when the woman left. He said that she believed that her husband and baby daughter were still in the house.
The woman, Ali, described her husband as a philanderer who slept at the home of a woman in Grass Field. “Ask he why he does sleep at Grass Field. Me ain’t sweet no more.”
In the meantime, neighbours who gathered at the scene to render assistance had their views to share.
Many voiced their opinion that the fire was the work of an arsonist.
“This is de second house fuh de year dem people bun down. Every time she and she husband gat problem one a dem does bun down de house,” one neighbour lamented.
However, early yesterday morning the police detained the woman’s husband for questioning. He was subsequently released and she was arrested.
At the time of her arrest she was reeking of petrol. When questioned, she said that she had intended to set herself alight but she could not find a match.
Up to press time yesterday Ali was still in police custody assisting with investigations.
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