A mother of three is homeless after a mid-day fire destroyed her modest two bedroom home in Ogle, East Coast Demerara on Thursday.
Parvattie Sookhoo, of 30 Ogle Front, Sideline Dam was not at home when the fire began. A visibly distraught Sookhoo declined to speak, but her sister Sharda Williams recalled what took place during the incident. Williams said she was in her home with her niece debating whether to let the child out of the house to go pick up her sister.
“When I go and give my second niece the two hat fuh put pun she and she sister head. My grandmother say look fire in the girl house and when I looked up, there was the fire direct where this fuse box by the veranda deh,” Williams said.
Williams said she attempted to turn the switch in the fuse box off before the fire spread, but was shocked. “But when the fire keep blazing, the transformer still sparking, the fire so I had to holler to the neighbour to call GPL,” Williams recalled.
The Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) disconnected the electricity supplied to the house. Shortly after, the fire service arrived and doused the flames. However, the house was destroyed by then. Williams noted that every time it rains, the area experiences problems with the transformer.
“We keep calling them [GPL], they come in they own time sometimes you mek several calls and them meet in them own time. You does gah keep taking off ya main them,” Williams said. The only thing that the family managed to salvage from the house was a computer.
