Latest update January 20th, 2025 4:00 AM
Shouting neighbours help save couple from inferno
By Shervin Belgrave
Kaieteur News – About an hour after saying goodnight to their guests and securing their premises, a Wakenaam businessman and his wife on Sunday were forced to flee their home as it was engulfed in flames.
Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, along with some firemen, inspect the aftermath of the fire.
Grateful for the loud screams of their neighbours that caused them to bolt from their bed around 02:30hrs, are 54-year-old Anil Rambarran and his wife, 52-year-old Chandrowtie Rambarran.
Rambarran’s Lot 18 Belplain, Wakenaam Island, Essequibo River, Region Three, two-flat wooden and concrete home, which housed his business on the bottom flat, was completely destroyed by what investigators suspect to be a fire of electrical origin.
Speaking to Kaieteur News, Rambarran said that he had hosted a wake at his home Saturday evening and it ended a little after midnight. After the attendees left, Rambarran recalled securing his premises and retiring to bed with his wife around 01:00hr on Sunday.
They had fallen asleep but then they were startled by their neighbours’ shouts that their home was on fire. The upper flat was already engulfed with thick smoke, which emanated from the bottom flat, and there was nothing else that they could have done but escape through the back door.
The couple, this publication was informed, stood on the roadside and watched their entire property become engulfed in flames, despite the valiant efforts of nearby residents, who formed a bucket brigade to help quell the blaze.
Firemen from both the Leonora and Essequibo fire stations arrived at the scene, and with the assistance of the residents managed to prevent the fire from spreading to neighbouring houses.
Kaieteur News was told that after the fire was brought under control, Rambarran collapsed and had to be rushed to a hospital. His blood pressure, according family members, “skyrocketed.”
When Kaieteur News spoke with him yesterday, he was out of hospital and staying at a relative but was still unwell. He had little to say about the ordeal. His wife said that he did not sleep since the fire occurred and was still recovering from the shock.
The Guyana Fire Service in a release noted that the Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn; Acting Fire Chief, Gregory Wickham; Deputy Commissioner of Police, Clifton Hicken and Commander of the Region Three Police Division, Errol Watts visited the scene and the victims.
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