As mother goes partying - Two children perish in Durban street fire - Landlord jumps through window remarking: “I don’t have time with children

Written by Leroy Smith. Sunday, 25 August 2013 22:11, Source

Two siblings, eight-year old Shianne Marshall and ten-year old Omerada Marshall, yesterday morning perished when a fire suspected to have started by a lit candle gutted their lot 71 Durban Street Lodge home at around 04:00 hours.

The mother of the children Odessa Marshall and their other sibling, 13-year old Horden Marshall escaped with burns as the latter jumped through a window while his mother who returned from a party watched as the house went up in flames with her two children inside.

The Lot 71 Durban Street house engulfed in fire with the children trapped inside yesterday morning- (Courtesy Gordon Mosely)(Front page photo)

It

I was reported that the fire may have started by a lit candle which was in the room where the children were sleeping and one of them might have accidentally kicked it down. The house has been without electricity supply for almost one year now residents in the area said.

According to persons who rushed to the fire scene to render assistance when the fire started the eldest of the three children who were at home, jumped through the window leaving his brother and sister behind.

Like the 13 year old, the landlord who lived upstairs of the Marshalls,’ jumped through the window from the upper flat. When asked to render assistance he reportedly told the residents in the area that: “I don’t have time with that. Me ain’t got children.”

Persons said that they attempted to save the children but were prevented from doing so because of the heat emanating from the fire. One woman said that she woke up to the shattering sounds of glass and began calling for the children.

Remnants of the house after the Sunday morning fire in which two children perished

She said that from where she was she could hear the children screaming but could not come out of the house. The woman said that there were also seven puppies which were killed in the fire.

The Guyana Chronicle was also informed that the house which was tightly locked prevented the attempts of the children from fleeing the burning house. The doors of the house are said to be barred with thick beams which are placed across them to secure the back and front doors.

The only window which did not have a bar was the one from which the 13-year old managed to escape while his siblings were trapped in other parts of the house by the fire. The ten-year old it was reported was attempting to remove the bar from the front door but was suffocated by the thick smoke while his sister crunched up in a corner to cover herself from the fire.

One woman said that after they realised that the house was on fire they called the fire emergency number but that rang out leaving them with the other option of calling the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s  (GPHC) ambulance hotline which apparently contacted the fire service.

Some of the items pulled from the ashes after the fire

When the mother of the children came home yesterday morning the house was already on fire. She was reportedly out at a party, something persons on the area said is a regular feature. The residents told the Guyana Chronicle that the woman would usually leave the children at home and go partying and Saturday night was no different.

They said that at one time they were forced to call in the officials of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security to look into the welfare of the children. The children, it was stated, were taken from the woman sometime back but were returned under circumstances they are not aware of.

The ten-year old reportedly was a regular visitor at the fish ship on Durban Street where he would usually be begging persons for money and food.

Meanwhile, as the woman came home to see the house on fire she reportedly began questioning who and how was she going to be compensated for the things in her home that were destroyed by the fire. She sounded less interested in the fact that her two children were in the house burning to death and about trying to save them, a neighbor told this newspaper.

The interior of the lower flat of the home where the Marshalls lived

The Marshalls who previously lived at another location on Durban Street moved to the present location approximately a year now. Yesterday the mother and her 13-year old were treated for burns to the skin. While the 13 year old did not suffer severe or life threatening burns, his mother suffered serious burns to her body including her face.

Yesterday morning the aunt of the children said that she was at home when she got the message. She said that she was informed that her sister was burnt and is at the hospital, while her niece and nephew were killed in a fire.