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Domestic worker loses home to fire
A 52-year-old woman who toiled almost her entire life as a domestic worker to ensure her three children
A devastated Bhanumati Persaud hours after the fire
had a comfortable life, lost her years of hard earnings and sacrifice early yesterday when her home went up in flames.
The fire which erupted sometime around 08:00 hrs destroyed the two-storey house at Lot 8E-28 Eighth Street, Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
Homeless is Bhanumati Persaud, who lived at the aforementioned address for more than 20 years.
Persaud, who sustained minor burns to her hands, said she was sweeping her yard when a neighbour informed her that smoke was emanating from the upper flat of her home.
“I run upstairs and smoke was all over. I see like a small ball of fire on the chair and I tried to push the chair, but I couldn’t, because the smoke was all over,” the devastated woman recalled.
She suggested that the fire may have started in one of the rooms in the upper flat of the three-bedroom house, since she claimed that she saw the smoke coming from that side of the house.
Fighting to hold back tears, Persaud said, “I didn’t know what to do. I keep running in and out, trying to save things, but I ended up saving nothing.”
The mother of three who lived at the house alone for a number of years said she worked extremely hard to build her house.
“Only like two years now I build that house and I am still building. Piece by piece I am building,” she said with tears streaming down her face.
The woman added that she worked almost every day, and only yesterday she didn’t work and lost her house.
“It’s not like I wasn’t at home when this fire started. I was home and I had to watch everything burn up,” she lamented.
Meanwhile, one neighbour said that the fire started and ended relatively quickly.
The burnt house
“We heard no noise. We just see thick smoke, then the fire, and that was it. This thing happened so fast. Look how hard you does have to work to earn something and then in a matter of seconds you can lose it,” the neighbour commented.
Another neighbour opined that the fire may have been electrical.
“We are getting blackout so steady; that and all mussy cause it. GPL (Guyana Power and Light Inc.) just doing what they want with the current and we have to suffer,” an upset neighbour related.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
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