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Fire razes Cummings Lodge apartments
– several UG students suffer losses
Fire, suspected to be of electrical origin, destroyed a two-storey building at Lot 46 Third Street Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara last night.
the building on fire last night.
The building housed an estimated 35 tenants, including several University of Guyana students. Many of them stated that they were unable to save anything.
The fire began at around 20.30hrs and firefighters were still battling the flames at midnight.
Once again, the nation’s inadequate fire-fighting capabilities were glaringly exposed. While four fire tenders were at the scene, they all ran out of water, and two pumps malfunctioned while the crewmen were trying to access water from a silt-filled canal.
Some eyewitness recounted seeing wires sparking in a section of the building and then seeing flames.
One student told Kaieteur News that he was cooking in the upper flat when he smelt something burning. He then went outside and observed flames emanating from a locked apartment. He and another tenant attempted to kick the door in, but by then, the flames had spread.
The student said that he lost everything in his apartment, including cash, passport, laptop and other valuables.
Another tenant said that he was returning from a nearby supermarket when he saw that the building was on fire. The man, who is an Indian national, said that he had been renting an apartment there for six years.
A tenant who lived in a similar structure next door said she was sleeping when she heard an explosion. On looking outside, she saw the building engulfed in flames.
Some residents opined that the structure could have been saved had the fire tenders arrived with adequate water.
However, one firefighter was overheard saying that the crew was unable to immediately tackle the blaze due to the presence of live wires. Guyana Power and Light (GPL) crewmen eventually disconnected the power in the area.
A senior fire official who was at the scene said that the firefighters managed to ‘contain’ the blaze to one building. He said that two pumps broke down while the crew was attempting to access water from a muddy canal.
On Thursday, days after she rented a building at Fifth Field, Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara, 23-year-old trainee teacher, Maria Barjoan, returned home to find her abode up in flames.
And earlier in the month, a man allegedly torched his parents’ home at Number 59 Village, Corentyne.
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