Activist sees house on fire while washing clothes

Oct 26, 2020 News

Kaieteur News – Minutes after a resident stepped out of her house yesterday to “wash clothes”, she saw it being engulfed in flames.

Lost her home: Quincy McEwan

She managed to alert her family who were inside the building.
The two-storey concrete and wooden home is located on Norton Street, Lodge. It is said to belong to the head of Guyana Trans United, Quincy McEwan- it caught fire sometime before 15:00hrs.
McEwan said that she was about to “soak down two tub of clothes” when she heard a loud sound that prompted her to look up at her house.
“When I raise up my head I see the smoke and fire coming from the back room upstairs,” said the woman.
McEwan said that she began shouting “fire fire” and alerted her brother, his girlfriend and her son who were still in the upper flat of the building.
They managed to escape, she said, before the blaze got out of control.
According to eyewitnesses, the fire spread quickly and engulfed the entire top flat within minutes.
The Deputy Fire Chief of the Guyana Fire Service (GFS), Kalamadeen Edoo, said the Fire Department received the call at 15:00hrs and responded with multiple fire trucks.
When they arrived, McEwan’s house was almost burnt to the ground. The fire even destroyed her small grocery shop located at the front of house and scorched the wall of another house close by.
One of the occupants of that house said that they suffered major water damages to their home.
After about an hour of battling the blaze, fire fighters were finally able to extinguish the blaze and carry out their investigations.
Meanwhile, McEwan says she does not know her next move.
Nevertheless, she said that she has been living there for 25 years and was totally unprepared for such a disaster.
McEwan estimates her losses to be in the millions.