Four homeless after Princes St blaze
Four persons are now homeless after a fire completely destroyed the top floor of their home yesterday.
According to Head of Operations of the Guyana Fire Service (GFS), Compton Sparman, the GFS received a call around 2:45 PM alerting them to a fire at 1515 Princes Street. “Immediately we dispatched two appliances from Central Fire Station and one from West (Ruimveldt)”.
“When we got here the entire top floor of the building was engulfed in flames. Immediately we got into firefighting operations using the water supplied and subsequently water from the canal and we successfully confined the fire to the top floor,” Sparman said, while pointing out that even though there were two wooden buildings that are very close to the house on its left and right they were able to prevent the fire from causing any major damage to them.
“One of them was only partially scorched outside because of the successful firefighting. In relation to the investigation, we spoke to the occupants and no one was left at home but something had to happen in there. Fire don’t happen, it is caused. Basically we will continue to talk with the occupants and neighbours to try to establish the cause,” he added.
While no one was in the top floor at the time of the fire, Sandra Christine, an occupant of the house, was in the lower flat, in a salon with her two children. She explained to Stabroek News yesterday that she is unaware of how the fire might have started since she did not hear anything prior to being alerted to it.
“I was downstairs and we had just finished washing our hair and I heard my neighbour calling for me and when I go upstairs I see the fire at the back,” the woman said, while explaining that she subsequently grabbed her two children and vacated the premises.
According to the reports, the fire started at the northern part of the building, where the kitchen is located. However, according to Christine, there was nothing on the stove at that moment and she is unaware of any other likely cause of the fire.
One of the neighbours whose house was saved by firefighters explained that she was in the lower flat of the home when she started smelling smoke. “We thought it was by us so I checked but when we looked out back we saw the fire coming from over there,” the woman explained, while adding that they subsequently called the fire service.
“They [GFS] reached very, very fast,” the woman said, while explaining that she did not hear anything strange before the fire.
The neighbours commended the firefighters on being able to prevent the fire from spreading to the two other buildings.