A 55-year-old woman fled her home at Lot 1 Edinburgh, East Bank Berbice (EBB), on Monday morning after waking to noise outside and discovering smoke pouring into the upper flat of the two-storey building. Zalima Ally was alone upstairs in her home when the fire broke out in the lower flat of the building, which was occupied by another woman who was away at the time. Within minutes, what Ally initially thought might have been someone burning garbage nearby developed into a major fire, sending thick smoke through the building and leaving her with little time to escape. The New Amsterdam Fire Service responded with two units and managed to contain the blaze to the building. Ally recalled that before becoming aware of the fire, she had detected a slight burning smell but did not initially consider it unusual.

“I did smell a little like a burn. It’s probably somebody throwing garbage or whatever, but I didn’t contact anything. I didn’t really realise I’m thinking that something happening downstairs,” she related. She subsequently returned to bed, but sometime later began hearing people outside making noise. By the time she got up, smoke had already begun entering the upper flat. Ally said her first reaction was to determine whether something inside her apartment was burning. “…but before I could have come out of the bed, I see smoke start coming,” she recalled. She rushed to the kitchen but found nothing there that could account for the smoke. It was then that she realised the problem was downstairs.

With smoke rapidly filling the upper flat, Ally returned to the bedroom, hurriedly put on clothing and made her way out of the house. By then, she said, flames had begun spreading heavily through the lower section of the building. Outside, neighbours were already raising an alarm and attempting to assist.