Latest update April 18th, 2025 8:12 AM
Death of couple and son in Cummings Lodge inferno…Detained landlord’s son had argued with tenant over rent minutes before fire started
As police continue to question a suspect, new information is emerging that appears to suggest that last Saturday’s fire which destroyed a two storey, nine-apartment Cummings Lodge building and killed a couple and their 14-year-old son was deliberately set.
Still in custody is the landlord’s 30-year-old son, who was arrested when he returned to the scene.
The suspect currently being questioned by police.
Police have established that the man had visited the Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara building minutes before the fire started, but the detained man has denied that he started the blaze.
Police hope that CCTV footage they are attempting to obtain will provide leads.
Investigators were told that the landlord’s son was involved in an argument with one of the tenants over rent shortly before the fire broke out.
The tenant alleged that the son came to collect rent but she refused to hand over the money, since she was unsure if he was authorized to collect the rent.
It is alleged that the son then went into an unoccupied apartment on the top flat of the building. He allegedly spent close to 15 minutes in the apartment before he left ‘speedily’ in a car.
Not long after smoke was seen emanating from the building.
But another tenant who was sitting in front of the building when the fire started has reportedly given another version of events to investigators.
Nevertheless, both tenants and the suspect confirmed that the landlord’s son was at the building minutes before the fire started.
Investigators believe that based on the evidence gathered so far that a flammable liquid was used.
They have also concluded that the fire started in same apartment that the man had allegedly entered. That apartment is said to be unoccupied.
Kaieteur News was later informed by sources that there was an ongoing dispute among relatives over the property.
The property was formerly owned by the detained man’s grandmother, who had passed away.
Sources revealed that the rightful owner had left the detained man’s father (landlord) in charge of the property.
Police confirmed this and other sources also said that the property’s insurance policy had expired in March.
This publication was also reliably informed that the landlord had recently travelled to the United States and could not return because of the Covid-19 restrictions.
He had reportedly authorized his daughter to collect the rent in his absence.
However, it is alleged that different persons claiming to be the man’s relatives would come to collect rent on his behalf.
The suspected arson attack occurred at around 17:45 hrs on Sunday at E- Half Sixth Street, Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara.
Marvin Lewis, 46, his wife Beverly Miller, 40, and their son, Duwhaul Ifill, 14, perished when they were trapped in the heavily grilled building.
A tenant and sister of Marvin Lewis said that she was sitting by her “stand” located outside of the property when she heard screams coming from her brother’s apartment.
She rushed into the yard and noticed the building was on fire.
She claimed that she fetched water from a nearby pipe to extinguish the blaze.
The rubble from the two-storey apartment building.
But the fire spread quickly and the building started to collapse. Other tenants started running out of the building. She too was forced to rescue her children by passing some of them through a back fence. The woman and others attempted to rescue her brother, wife, and son, who were trapped behind a heavily grilled door.
However, they were forced to retreat from the flames.
Eyewitnesses said that another tenant was almost trapped when he tried to save his belongings. He managed to escape through a back gate.
Eyewitnesses claimed that they were forced to listen to the screams of the trapped victims as the building came crashing down on them.
Shortly after fire fighters arrived and eventually contained the blaze before combing through the rubble for the victims.
Their charred remains were found. They appeared to have been clinging to each other.
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