Mother of nine perishes in Enterprise blaze

Jul 31, 2017 News

Horror unfolded last evening in Enterprise Squatting Area, East Coast Demerara, when a domestic worker perished in a fire of unknown origin,that gutted her wooden home.
Dead is fifty-year-old Meena Sookoo, a mother of nine.
Reports are that around 15:00hrs, residents heard Sookoo screaming for help.
A resident who lived a few houses away from Sookoo said that he was in his yard cleaning when he saw smoke coming from the woman’s home. Soon after, he recalled hearing the woman’s screams.
The man said that by the time he got over to assist it was too late, because the entire house was already engulfed in flames.
Another neighbour said that when he was going home he saw the woman sitting on the step of her home with what appeared to be a beer bottle.
The residents said that the fire-fighters arrived on the scene some two hours after.
The woman’s daughter Bebe (only name given) said that she was at home when she received a phone call from a neighbour stating that her mother’s house was on fire.

The remains of the house

Undertakers remove the body

“When I reach the house had already burn to the ground. We did not get to save anything.”
The woman pointed to a corner of the house where her mother’s corpse was found. Bebe said that her mother lived with her husband Terry Prescott, who is a cane harvester.
“I spoke to my mother last Tuesday, when she went by me to see the grand children.”
The woman said that she is unaware of what could have caused the fire since her mother does not cook because she is not well. She said that her mother was an “alcoholic”.
“She does drink hard and she husband don’t want her to cook,” the grieving daughter related.
Bebe said that a few years ago her mother was diagnosed with high cholesterol and hypertension and due to her condition she was unable to work because she would often get sick. “She recently started tekking on the sickness.”
The victim’s husband said that he was not at home when the fire started. “Me went by a friend to help him do some work and while there the man said that he got a call from a neighbour who told him that his house was on fire.”
The man stated that when he got home the house had already been completely destroyed. He stood and watched as undertaker’s removed his wife’s body.