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…four homeless, damage estimated in millions of dollars
By Clifford Stanley
Fire of unknown origin destroyed a three bedroom house at Paradise Village West Cost Berbice early Saturday morning leaving damage estimated in millions of dollars and four people homeless.
Eyewitnesses said the fire at Lot 22 started around 07:45 hrs and by 08:15 hrs the wooden and concrete house had been completely gutted.
Homeless are proprietor Mrs Desa Melville a businesswoman and another adult and two children ages eight and three years old.
The two children were the only occupants at the time of the blaze and luckily barely managed to escape unhurt.
Ms Melville who runs a business in another building in front of her home was in her premises.
The other adult was at work.
Reports are that the three -year old was under the building at the time the fire started while the eight year-old was in a bedroom upstairs.
The eight -year -old told neighbours that she felt a heat in the house and on investigating saw the back portion on fire.
She managed to run out of the building moments before the blaze took hold.
The three-year -old meantime darted to safety to the building in front.
Residents said that the response of the fire service was noticeably poor.
“The fire service is located at Onverwagt WCB about a ten minutes drive a way.This started as a small blaze and had they responded immediately the building could have been saved,” one resident said.
“It took some time to get them even to answer the call,” she said.
She added however that the firemen were able to contain the blaze to one building and also saved another neighbouring house which had been threatened by the intense heat.
Residents formed a bucket brigade but had to withdraw after the heat from the burning building became too intense for them to operate safely.
Mrs. Melville bemoaning her loss said that the house had been renovated less than two years ago at a cost of millions of dollars.
“It was fully furnished as well. We couldn’t save anything” she said ,adding that she was thankful that the two children in the home, had manage to escape without injury.”
The West Berbice Fire Police are investigating the disastrous blaze.
