Eight persons were left homeless yesterday after a fire swept through four buildings at Cummings Street and North Road, Georgetown, destroying a house inherited by 83-year-old Joy Best from her parents.
Best was at home when shouts of “fire” alerted her to the blaze. She went to the back of her house and saw smoke coming from a building before flames spread to neighbouring properties.
“I was home in the house and I just heard someone shouting fire. I went to the back of my house and I saw smoke,” she told Kiskadee Watch.
One of the houses destroyed stood directly behind the building in which Best lives. Her home escaped damage.
Best said the family properties at Lots 2 and 3 North Road had belonged to her parents and were subsequently inherited by her. She did not know what caused the fire.
The Guyana Fire Service said four buildings behind Akbar Auto Sales were affected and eight persons were displaced.
According to the service, crews arrived to find two buildings engulfed in flames, with neighbouring structures under threat. Two nearby houses also caught fire, but firefighters extinguished those flames and prevented further spread.
The affected properties included single-storey, two-storey and three-storey buildings constructed of wood and concrete.
An employee at Akbar Auto Sales said she was working when she was alerted to the fire at about 3.30 pm.
“When we looked out, the fire was already blazing,” she told Kiskadee Watch.
She said staff closed the business as a precaution because they could not determine whether the flames would spread to the premises.
Crews from Fire Service Headquarters, led by Section Leader Kingston, responded with a water tender, a water bowser and an ambulance. A second water tender and crew from the Campbellville Fire Station, under Section Leader Marcus, also attended.
Motorists were advised to exercise caution at the intersection while firefighters battled the blaze.
The Fire Service said investigations into the cause were continuing.
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