A discarded cigarette ignited a pile of fishing seine, setting off a fire that destroyed a family's home at Number 67 Village, Corentyne, on Thursday.
The blaze, which broke out in the early hours at Lot 141, spread to more than 15 jars of gasoline stored at the property and destroyed the four-bedroom concrete house, leaving a family of five homeless.
The house was occupied by 41-year-old Geetanjali Sukhram, her 35-year-old husband and their three children, aged 12, 11 and nine.
Sukhram said her husband returned home around midnight and threw a cigarette end outside while smoking. She said it was blown onto the seine at the side of the house, which caught fire.
The gasoline was kept for transporting supplies by boat.
“The cigarette ash like he catch up on the sane, and the flame, they start burn from the sane. And all the gas start blow, explode,” she said.
She was on the veranda when the fire started, while her husband managed to get out of the house. She called the fire service, but the house was already destroyed when firefighters arrived.
Only a vehicle was removed from the yard.
“Nothing. Nothing,” Sukhram said when asked what the family had salvaged.
“I'm penniless right now. No money, nothing,” she said.
She added that her husband is unconscious and traumatised by the incident and unable to speak with anyone.
Neighbouring resident Deonarine Subramanie, who lives behind his son's property, said he was awakened by what sounded like an explosion as his grandchildren arrived. He initially dismissed the sound.
“Me hear this thing like every five minutes it going off steady,” he said.
Smoke eventually began entering his house.
“When me open the door and come out, there is fire, the house is on fire,” he recalled.
Subramanie began throwing water at the back of a shed to prevent the flames from spreading to his property. Several men later assisted, using a pressure washer to help contain the fire.
The official cause of the fire remains to be confirmed.

Geetanjali Sukhram