Rice farmer, family lose house in Alness fire

A Corentyne rice farmer says he is devastated after returning from his rice field on Tuesday afternoon to find his family home reduced to ashes following a fire at Alness Village.

The blaze destroyed the four-bedroom wooden and concrete house at Lot 45 Alness Village, leaving the family homeless and wiping out all of their possessions.

Gumattie Desa, the farmer’s wife, told reporters she was preparing a meal at around 15:30 hours when someone alerted her that sparks had been seen on the upper flat of the house. At the time, one of her sons was in the yard.

She said she immediately rushed from the kitchen and discovered flames coming from a front bedroom. Desa called on her son to switch off the main electrical supply, but the rapidly spreading fire prevented him from reaching the switch.

Within minutes, the blaze had engulfed the entire building.

According to Desa, everything the family owned was destroyed. The house was occupied by the couple, their 21-year-old daughter, two sons aged 21 and 16, and their 13-month-old grandchild.

Neighbours looked on helplessly as the fire consumed the home while firefighters from the Guyana Fire Service responded to the scene.

Desa’s husband, Vishnu Ganpat, said he was working in a rice field more than four miles away when he received a phone call informing him of the fire. By the time he arrived home, the building had already been destroyed.

“Right now I’m going into the crop and I don’t even have a cent left because everything burn. They couldn’t save anything. I feel heartbroken for losing everything. Thank God I came home and found my family alive,” an emotional Ganpat said.

With their home destroyed, the family is temporarily staying with relatives as they consider how to rebuild their lives.

Divisional Fire Officer Clive McDonald said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.