Four Venezuelan migrant workers have been left homeless after the two-storey wooden house they occupied along King Street, Hampshire Village, Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), was destroyed by fire following a violent confrontation during which one of the occupants was allegedly chopped with a cutlass. The blaze, which erupted shortly before midday on Monday, completely destroyed the elevated wooden building, leaving only its charred frame standing. Firefighters managed to contain the flames before they spread to neighbouring properties, but the occupants lost all of their clothing, household items and personal belongings. The house, a two-storey wooden structure with corrugated metal roofing, was occupied by four Venezuelan nationals who had been living and working in the area. By the time firefighters arrived, the building was already engulfed in flames, and despite their efforts, it was reduced to a burnt shell.

Investigators are probing the circumstances surrounding the fire, which is believed to have been deliberately set. The incident occurred hours after one of the occupants was attacked with a cutlass during a confrontation involving a man from the community. One of the occupants, 24-year-old Cheto Johnathan Heberto, said the ordeal began when a man arrived at the house during the night and confronted the men who were staying there. “The man come at the house there. Four men, we does sleep there. The night he come he talk, talk too much. He go home and come back, bring cutlass. One of the boy sleep at the lower flat. The man come over and chop him, to kill him,” Heberto recounted. He said the men had travelled to Guyana to work and had been living peacefully at the Hampshire property.

“We come here to work and live. We living right here, sleep. That man clothes, me clothes, the other man clothes, everybody clothes burn up.”