A fire ravaged through several buildings located between Thomas and Pike Streets, Kitty, Georgetown on Thursday leaving several persons displaced.
When the News Room visited the scene at about 12:30 hrs, smoke blanketed the area, as fire engulfed buildings that were close to each other.
The Guyana Fire Service responded to the fire about 30 minutes after the initial call.
It was a fight against the time for the firefighters on the scene. The fire spread from the initial building and engulfed two other buildings on the side. Both buildings are seemingly apartment complexes as well.
With tenders displaced at the entrances from both Pike and Thomas Streets, the firefighters tried to contain the fire to one building.
Building left in a devastating state after the fire on Thursday. (Photo: News Room/ May1, 2025)
Persons were also seen dousing water onto their homes in efforts to stop the fire from spreading further and engulfing more buildings.
According to Randall Duguid, 28, who lived on the top/third floor of one of the apartment building where it is assumed the fire started, said his mother first said she was smelling smoke.
“I was in front relaxing and my mother said she smells smoke. Soon as I opened the back door, I saw bright orange in the back room of the downstairs (bottom apartment) I started trying to fight it, throwing water,” Randall said.
After realizing his efforts to extinguish the fire were futile, he immediately told his mother, Evelyn Benjamin, 64, to call the fire service and he then went to the bottom flat, where two elderly cousins lived. By this time an alarm was raised and neighbours assisted him with removing the women from the apartment.
Randall Duguid during an interview with the News Room. (Photo: News Room/ May1, 2025)
The smoke played a massive factor in preventing persons from escaping the building but the man said he held onto the rails on the steps to get by and he managed to escape with his mother as well before the fire destroyed the building.
“Right now I am just happy to be here and to have my mom. Duhs it, we ain’t got nothing left. It’s sad but we have life,” the man said.
The two women who lived at the bottom/ first floor are Verlie De Barros, 87 and Lucille Peters, 97, who are cousins. Verlie told the News Room that her cousin complained about feeling heated in the apartment just moments before they were aware of the fire. She suspects the fire started because of a wiring issue.
Verlie De Barros during an interview with the News Room on Thursday. (Photo: News Room/ May1, 2025)
“She [Lucille] tell me she feeling heaty, heaty, where the heat coming from? I said we ain’t gah heat here because I don’t cook in the house…That house, it has wires and thing that need to change. All that could cause it,” she said.
Both households related that all of their belongings were destroyed by the fire. They could not provide an estimate of the amount but they suspect it was millions of dollars in losses.
The post Fire destroys Kitty buildings, elderly among displaced persons appeared first on News Room Guyana.
