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Main Street businessman, 77, burns to death in building
Yussuf Sankar and his sister, Lyla Kissoon in happier times
A 77-year-old father of five was killed in an early morning fire yesterday when his home and business place located at Lot 51 Main Street, Georgetown went up in flames. The fire started around 05:00 hrs.
The victim has been identified as Yussuf Sankar. His burnt body was found among debris at the stairway in the upper flat of the three-storey property, suggesting that he was trying to get out of the burning building.
It is suspected that Sankar could not make it out of the burning building in time due to the fact that he recently underwent heart surgery. He was sleeping when the fire started on the ground floor where the elderly man operated a printing shop.
Sankar’s caretaker, Claire Xavier, was staying at the house when the fire broke out. According to the caretaker, there was a power outage and when electricity came on, the fan started spinning very fast. She switched it off and went back to sleep.
Shortly after, she was alerted by security guards at the Prime Minister’s official residence shouting for fire.
Not sure where the fire was, the woman said she went to her boss and informed him that there was a fire somewhere.
“He (Sankar) asked where the fire was and (Claire) said she didn’t know and he tell her to go check so she went downstairs. When she went down, she realized there was smoke all over and ran out of the building,” a relative of the caretaker explained.
Kaieteur News was informed that the PM’s security guard assisted the woman in getting out of the building, but because the fire was spreading quickly from the bottom flat to the top, they could not have entered the property to save the elderly man.
By the time fire fighters got to the scene, the 77-year-old man had stopped screaming.
“We did our best but we couldn’t get to him fast enough. We suspect that he collapsed with the smoke because he was sick too,” a source from the fire service explained.
One of the victim’s sons, Riyadh Sankar, told this newspaper that he learnt about the fire while on his way home with his brother, Shane Sankar, after dropping off another sibling, Jarryd Sankar, at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport. Jarryd was heading to Florida.
By the time Riyadh and Shane reached to their father’s home, it had already burnt to ashes.
“They found his body by the steps coming down, so he was trying to get downstairs but Claire could not have waited with him, so he tried to get out,” Riyadh explained. This newspaper was informed that Jarryd came back to Guyana upon learning of his father’s demise.
Up to press time, Yussuf’s sons were providing the cops with information to assist in their investigation.
The lower flat of the building housed Risan’s Instant Photography and Gift Centre as well as Jarod’s graphics, documents and copy centre.
Yussuf was the brother of Lyla Kissoon, whose husband Hemraj Kissoon is the proprietor of furniture giant, AH&L Kissoon.
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Very sad , My heart goes tout to this family. Electricity on wooden buildings can be dangerous, especially an outage. Reminiscent of the fire of the old building in Robb and King street where 3 people died, but they were stealing electricity from the National grid and they were also using candles. It is so sad to see the vultures who are now taking advantage of this tragedy . They have constructed a concrete building and renting it out to traders, namely John Pyneandy, a bankrupt con man, who has no respect for the people who died there. could it be that he was responsible for this fire? Rumour has it that he is making US$1000 a month and he does not even own the building, he is a squatter on the land.
Very sad for this family. Electricity outage can be a problem for wooden building. Reminds me of the fire in Robb and King Streets, but in this case the residents were stealing electricity from the National Grid and using candles. This was a tragedy where three people died, but some people have no respect for the dead. Soon after the fire a bankrupt con man John Pyneandy, is taking to make money from this tragedy, He build a concrete structure and he renting to traders for US$1000 a month and he does not own this land, did he start the fire so he can make money?