NEW AMSTERDAM, BERBICE – Mrs. Sherry Persaud is upset at the seemingly slow pace the investigation into the deaths of her only two children, mother-in-law and father-in-laws is moving.Sherry Persaud Over the weekend, Mrs. Persaud spoke of some of the inadequacies of the Guyana Fire Service and the Guyana Water Inc.“The night of the fire, if the Guyana Fire Service was well prepared, they could have saved the kids and my in-laws. Even if they (victims) had suffocated with the smoke when they (Guyana Fire Service) got there, if they had soaked the room, we would have found four perfect bodies.“The funny thing is that they came…all the hoses had holes. This is their job! Why are they not prepared to do it? They need a whole lot of training and equipment. If they had asbestos suits, at least somebody could have run up and try to save them. If it is the case that they have these pieces of equipment, why didn’t they use them?”An early morning blaze on Saturday,Stitched Jerseys, January 24 last at 7 Charlotte Street in New Amsterdam claimed the lives of 70-year-old Ivor Persaud, well known businessman and owner of one of the oldest business entities in New Amsterdam – Persaud’s Funeral Home, his 60-year- old wife Parbattie Persaud called ‘Patsy,’ proprietress of the Astor Snackette, and their two grandchildren – eight-year-old Melissa Persaud and five-year-old Arman Persaud.Melissa and Arman PersaudThe victims were trapped in the home. It is suspected that the fire started at just about 01:30 hours.Mrs. Persaud acknowledged that the home was heavily secured, but this, she said, should have been no reason for them to depart life in that manner. “If the windows are heavily grilled, couldn’t they (fire fighters) have used an axe or a sledge hammer, an electrical saw or some other kind of equipment to break the walls down and get them out?”Commenting on the human resources, Mrs. Persaud believes that better communication skills could have made a difference. “They do not have an investigator or such person who could have come to us during the fire to ask us questions so that we could have assisted them…questions like where my family was and so on.“We know the setting of the house.”She was even more critical of the water situation. “When they came and say they do not have water, I ran home and called someone who I knew at the Guyana Water Inc. who could have assisted the fire service. I heard when the person came and told them that they could go and get water in front by the (Astor) hotel. One of the firemen said, ‘It is not his f…ing job! Who is going to go in there?”She added, “The time they took to hook up the hose and do whatever they had to do, the house was burning. All around the house had grill, but the bedroom door had no grill; but wherever the fire was, by the time they (victims) realized it, they were trapped.”What is left of the buildingSome believe that arson may have been the root cause. When asked to comment on this, Ms Persaud responded, “That’s such a hard question…We never had any problems with anybody. Everybody is speculating and saying that it was arson,Cheap Jerseys China, but I guess the speculation is coming from the fact that we are not getting any information from the Guyana Fire Service.“A fire of this magnitude…one building, four persons … and they couldn’t save anybody? The most hurtful part was when we got up, the whole place was engulfed. Only God knows what really happened that night.”Some eyewitnesses recalled the horror of hearing the victims scream for help until they perished, but Mrs. Sherry Persaud had a different take on things. “That’s the thing. When we got there, nobody was screaming. There was no sound. That room was so tightly sealed…there was a settee by the room, and we would go sit there, and the kids would be playing in the room and we would not hear anything.Everybody saying they heard screaming,Cheap Air Max 270 Mens, but that’s not true, because no windows were opened. It was persons on the outside who were screaming, not those inside.”She is convinced that, at the time of the blaze, the Persauds were cognizant of what was taking place, at least in the initial stages. “The actual fact…where they found them shows that they were awake, because they had moved from the bed. They (fire fighters) found them at the back of the bedroom. They were trying to get away from the fire.”In trying to determine where the fire could have started, the woman recalled that when she was alerted and looked out,Andrea Barzagli Jersey, the house was already engulfed and the electrical wire leading to the building was sparking. “So we can’t tell if it started from that.”Ironically, a fire hydrant is just a few yards from the scene of the fire. According to a source close to the investigation, none of the fire hydrants in New Amsterdam is functioning. Based on her observation, Mrs. Sherry Persaud asked, “If you have a hydrant that is supposed to be full…a hydrant is right in front of the (Astor) Snackette. Tell me, is that just for show? Isn’t the hydrant supposed to be full? Why is it there, then?“We are paying our taxes; the least you can ask for is your own safety, and that and all we cannot depend on. Okay, it already happened to us, but what if it happens to somebody else? What are they going to do?”In situations such as the fire which claimed the lives of the Persauds, Mrs. Persaud said respect and consideration for the victims and their relatives should have been a key factor. “In all the confusion, the police and fire fighters still have to know how to treat people. There were victims in the fire. Although they were victims, they are our loved ones. On to the end we still had hope; we prayed and still had hope.“The way you break the news to a family, you should be trained to do that. You don’t just blurt it out. Another thing is that the police ranks and firemen who were out there, they have to know how to treat people.“My husband wanted to go up to the house…The way they handled him was uncalled for. You do not treat people like that… respect people! Respect the victims! You do not know how they are feeling. It seems as though in this country nobody values people’s lives. We do not have values anymore. People should respect their jobs and respect each other.”On Saturday, a source from the Guyana Fire Service said that the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, and the probe is still ongoing.On the day of the fire, Senior Superintendent of Division ‘B’ of the Guyana Police Force, Wreford Johnson, said that when he arrived on the scene, the fire was on the northwestern section of the building. The bodies were eventually found at the southwestern end.Based on the position in which the remains were found, relatives believe that the Persauds had fought to save their lives. The home in which the couple lived was re-wired some time last year.At the time of the tragedy, the two grandchildren were spending the night with their grandparents. The couple was said to be very fond of their grandchildren. Though the children lived a short distance away, they spent a lot of time at their grandparents’ home. Melissa was a Grade Three student at the St. Therese’s Primary School in New Amsterdam, while her brother, Arman, was a Level Two student of the St. Mary’s Nursery School.The mortal remains of the four were cremated at the Babu John Crematorium at Port Mourant on January 30, the day Mrs. Parbattie Persaud would have been celebrating her 61st birth anniversary.The late Ivor Persaud and his wife are survived by their two children,Cheap Jerseys, Anil and Narda; Anil’s wife Sherry, Narda’s husband Trevor and Narda’s only child, Joshua.Sherry Persaud said that life since the tragedy is not the same. “It is empty. I don’t think that time can actually heal this particular wound.”She is hoping the lives of her loved ones did not go in vain,Alec Burks Jersey, and that from this tragedy many lessons can be learnt. She even suggested some ways in which the main stakeholders can improve the service offered.
