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Fire guts DaSilva’s House of Optics
One of Georgetown’s oldest wooden buildings which houses the DaSilva’s House of Optics, was gutted by a fire which is believed to have started from a faulty air condition unit in the upper flat of the building. Kaieteur News was told that the fire started shortly after 13:00hrs yesterday afternoon.
Fire Chief Marlon Gentle who was at the scene yesterday told Kaieteur News that the fire service began receiving calls just after 1:30 on Sunday afternoon. Gentle said that the Fire Service immediately responded and rushed to the scene. At the scene, he said, fire officers noticed that the building was heavily laden with smoke coming from the top flat of the two storey building. Gentle said that there were also flames coming from the center of the house.
Fire fighters attending to the building.
According to Gentle, the firemen quickly worked to contain the fire to just that one structure. He said that after the initial response, there was need for more fire tenders which were subsequently summoned.
As the firefighters continued to pour water onto the building, Da Silva family members were seen removing several articles from the lower flat, which served as the main office for the country’s leading local house. Family members lived at the top of the building.
Brandon Milner, a relative of the owners of the property told Kaieteur News that at the time fire started, there were three occupants inside the house, including a one year old child. Milner said that the three were sleeping when they were awakened by the fire. He said that he was told that the occupants saw an air condition unit on fire.
Meanwhile according to an eyewitness, around 2:00 pm, smoke was seen billowing from the top flat of the wooden structure.
“I see this black smoke going up in the air from where I been at the hospital and then I hear like glass breaking up inside,” the eyewitness said.
He added that about 10 minutes after the blaze started, occupants who conducted business downstairs were seen taking out a number of items from the bottom flat. He said however that the persons who lived upstairs were nowhere to be seen.
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