After jumping from burning building… Two children among four rushed to hospital

Jul 16, 2016 News

The house on fire

A woman, her partner and their two young children had to be rushed to the Leonora Cottage Hospital to seek medical attention Thursday night, after jumping through a window from the top flat of a burning building.
The fire which started some time around 20:45 hrs and completely destroyed the two-storey building at Lot 237 Parika Old Road, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) is believed to be an act or arson. However, no one has been arrested.
According to reports received, the fire started in the lower flat of the building and quickly gutted the entire building.
Tanya Barrow and her two children Shee-an-yal and Samuel Sealey, who resided in the upper flat of the building, received treatment for minor burns and abrasions, while her partner, Oscar King, is said to have suffered a broken leg.
Those who resided in the bottom flat of the building were Barrow’s cousin, Samantha Johnson, her boyfriend, Shawn, her children Alexia and Althea Austin and a cousin, Kerry Ann. No one was in the lower flat of the building at the time of the fire but those who were residing upstairs were asleep.

What is left of the two-storey property

According to Maureen Khan, who resides next to the burnt property, she was about to have a bath when she spotted flames on her neighbour’s back step – the only entrance to the upper flat.
“I started hollering because the entire step was on fire and the downstairs too. I shouting for help and no one aint coming out and then I went to the neighbour at the other side and started hollering for her and then people started to come out,” the woman recalled.
The neighbour said that she was aware that no one was at home in the downstairs but knew the couple and their children were asleep in the upstairs and panicked when she called and got no answer.
“A minute after I saw the fire on the step, I hear a loud ‘boom’ and then the whole building was on fire,” the neighbour recalled.
Kaieteur News was told that it was when the blaze almost reached the upper flat of the building that Tanya Barrow and her family got up and, realizing that the only entrance was engulfed by the blaze, decided to jump through a window, to safety.
Meanwhile, Samantha Johnson in an interview with this newspaper said that she had left home earlier in the night to go and watch a game of football with her two daughters when she received a call that her home was on fire.
“I lived there all my life. I left to go to school in Georgetown and returned and lived there. I take up the lower flat and my cousin was living with me,” the woman said while fighting to hold back tears.
She said that she has no idea what could have caused the fire and would not want to point fingers at anyone.
The matter is being investigated by the Guyana Fire Service after which the findings will be handed over to the Guyana Police Force to probe further.

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