Latest update November 5th, 2024 1:00 AM
Fire flattens Better Hope house
Police on the East Coast of Demerara have not ruled out arson as the cause of a fire that flattened a wooden building at 105 Dwarka Street, Better Hope, early yesterday morning.
The lone occupant of the house, Davison Ramilall called Leon, who was seen minutes before the blaze has since disappeared, and investigators are seeking him to ascertain the circumstances of the fire.
According to a neighbour, Indranie Persaud, who recently returned to Guyana on holiday, a fire initially started shortly after midnight, but that was quickly extinguished.
“At around twelve we were awakened by a minibus that came and people were shouting for fire. We looked through the window and there was a little fire in an apartment downstairs there. The neighbours came and put it out. There was a boy (Ramilall) in there and he ran out. The fire engine came and everything was fine,” Persaud told this newspaper.
She said that she went back to bed around 03:00 hours and before that had noticed that the occupant of the burnt property had returned and was lying on a table under the house.
All that remains of the Better Hope house
According to Persaud, she and her family were again awakened, this time by the crackling sound of wood on fire.
“Trucks, everything, they were passing honking their horns, throwing stones on the house to alert us. We got up and the whole house was engulfed from top to bottom,” the overseas-based Guyanese stated.
Persaud’s house was also damaged by the heat from the blaze.
She said that she and the rest of the family had to hurriedly flee from their house carrying with them her elderly mother.
Persaud was loud in her praise for the fire department which she said responded immediately.
“We called and they were here in minutes. But by that time, because the house was old, it was engulfed quickly,” the woman said.
Kaieteur News understands that the house is owned by Ramilall’s mother, Rasmattie Sukhdeo, who is presently residing in Barbados.
“There was one person in the house but we don’t know if he got away or what happened, if he set the fire…that we cannot say,” Persaud related.
Persaud said that the incident could have been worse if the fire had managed to reach a nearby tyre business.
“If it had caught there, this entire area would have been devastated,” she said.
Up to late last night, the occupant of the house was still on the run.
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