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Visually impaired woman, children rescued from burning building
91-year-old Enid Dewsbury moments after she was pulled from the burning building
A 91-year-old visually impaired woman and her four grandchildren were pulled from their burning two-storey house at Lot 76 Sixth Street, Alberttown, Georgetown, yesterday.
The fire which started a little after 14:20 hrs has left seven persons homeless.
Those homeless are 54-year-old Edwin Nieuenkerk; his partner, Sonia George; their four-year-old son and Nieuenkerk’s three step children.
Nieuenkerk and his family lived with his 91-year-old mother, Enid Dewsbury, at her two bed-room house. According to reports, the fire was started by the four-year-old child. He was allegedly playing with matches on a mattress in one of the rooms when the fire occurred.
At the scene yesterday, a large crowd gathered in front of the burning building to get a glimpse.
Neighbours were heard screaming at the fire fighters who managed to get water from a nearby trench only after the house had already turned to ashes.
“You coming to a fire and you come without water? It’s useless calling fire service… Is best we fetch water and put out the fire,” one neighbour was heard saying.
The elderly woman and the four grandchildren were rescued from the burning building by neighbours and police.
Immediately after she was pulled from the building, Dewsbury, who sustained minor burns to her feet, was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) to seek medical assistance.
Nieuenkerk told this newspaper he was at the dentist when he received a call that his home was on fire. “When I went there, I see everything burn up. We lived there for more than 30 years,” Nieuenkerk said.
He explained that he was informed that his four-year-old son was the one who started the fire.
“I does always warn them about matches. This morning I cook and like I accidentally left the matches on the closet and he (four-year-old) picked it up,” Nieuenkerk noted.
He said that his wife is sick and she was in the hospital at the time of the fire. He added that, “I left the children in one room with my mother but like the four-year-old managed to sneak out of the room and went in the other one and played with the matches on the bed.”
Nieuenkerk is now contemplating his next move.
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