12 homeless after Cross Street fire

Jan 29, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – An apartment building located at Lot 59 Cross Street, Werk-en-Rust, Georgetown went up in flames on Thursday around 19:00hrs leaving 12 people homeless.

The apartment building on fire. (Photo credits to Jean Chu)

Sixty-two-year-old Gary Westmaas, a tenant who has been renting an apartment in the building for over a decade, said that “they does charge a ‘junkie’ a room for a thousand dollar a week at de back here right…they say he does overdose so he probably drop to sleep and the candle or mosquito coil he been burning caused the fire.”

The scene at Cross Street yesterday.

The apartment building is reportedly owned by 74-year-old Jone Bowman who occupied the top floor, along with three others.
The bottom floor which consisted of two apartments was occupied by a total of eight persons.

Victim, Gary Westmaas

Westmaas noted that within 15 minutes the two-storey, wooden building was completely on fire. He said that fire started at approximately 19:00hrs.
According to a Guyana Fire Service (GFS) report, the Fire Service received a call at 20:55hrs on Thursday about the incident. It was revealed that water tenders 102 from Central Fire Station, 107 from West Ruimveldt Fire Station and 112 from the Alberttown Fire Station were immediately dispatched to the location.

The purported cause of the conflagration, according to the Fire Service was an unattended lighted candle which fell and ignited nearby combustible materials.

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