Origin of Parika fire still being investigated

Jul 19, 2016 News

Investigators from the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) are working on two theories as they continue to probe the origin of a fire at Parika Old Road last Thursday. That fire forced four persons to jump from a two-storey

What was left of the building after the blaze.

building to save their lives.

According to a source from the GFS, they have received information that the fire could have been a deliberate act by a jilted lover of one of the women who was residing at the property at Lot 237 Parika.
Theory two is that the fire could have been electrical in origin. However, the exact origin of the fire which left 10 persons homeless is still being investigated.
Around 20:45 hrs last Thursday, a woman, her partner and their two young children had to be rushed to the Leonora Cottage Hospital, to seek medical attention after jumping through a window from the top flat of a burning building.
The fire completely destroyed the two-storey house.
According to reports received, the fire started in the lower flat of the building and quickly razed 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. Those who were residing upstairs were asleep.
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 ain’t 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.
Nothing was saved from the home.

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