Corentyne house destroyed by fire, 5 homeless

By Royan Abrams

A family of five is now homeless following a fire which completely destroyed their two-story wooden and concrete home at #78 Village, Corentyne on Thursday.

The family operates a fast food business at the Skeldon market and has suffered approximately $20M in losses.

The News Room understands that the fire began just after 11:00hrs while 30-year-old Shaklima Roy was at home preparing food to send to her husband who operates their business in the market.

According to the distraught woman, while in the lower flat of her home, she heard an explosion and upon investigating, she saw a bulb in the upper flat of her home sparking.

She added that she immediately rushed to the lower flat to raise an alarm but by the time she managed to see help, the spark had turned into flames.

“I hear the spark and then I hear something go off and when I check the bulb was sparking so I run downstairs and get something to put it off but by time I meet back the entire wall where the bulb was, had been on fire so I run back downstairs to get help and the neighbours call the fire service,” she said.

She said the entire house was already engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived. According to Shaklima, the fire service had little to no water to battle the blaze, which spread to a nearby building, which suffered minor damages.