An early morning fire at #64 village in Corentyne, Berbice claimed the lives of a mother and four of her children this morning. A fifth child managed to escape from the burning house.
It is believed that the mother and her children were all asleep when the fire started, and they got trapped in the burning building. The mother’s name has been given as 34-year-old Henwattie Singh, while the four children who died have been identified as 14-year-old Kelvin Singh, 10-year-old Brandon Singh, 11-year-old Cindy Ramjattan and 2-year-old Tomesh Ramjattan.
The dead woman’s sister, Yashuda Singh, said she was at home when she received the news of the tragedy.
“When me come, me sister done bun out already and dead and me start to cry”, she said.
Police and Fire officials were alerted to the fire just after 3 o’clock this morning and rushed to the scene. However, the house was already engulfed in flames and quickly caught on to a house next door. Both houses were gutted by fire.
Divisional Fire Officer, Clyde McDonald said the call about the blaze went through to the Georgetown Operations room, and the Corriverton Fire Department was immediately notified and dispatched tenders.
“Upon arrival, the crew observed the one building already consumed by fire. It was flat, and the next building to the right engulfed in flames. Immediately we started fire fighting operations to stop the fire from any further damage and during the fire fighting operations, there was information about some persons in the building, but however, the. building was already consumed by the fire”, he said.
The Police Commander in the area, Shivpersaud Bacchus, said a full probe of the fire will be conducted. The Guyana Fire Service is leading the probe.
President Irfaan Ali offered sympathy to the family of those who died in the fire in a message on his Facebook page.
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