No. 28 Village fire-“Everything burned up” – mother, 5 children homeless

A 39-year-old widow and her five children have been left homeless after a fire destroyed their home at Number 28 Village, West Coast Berbice (WCB), on Thursday morning. Melissa Semple, of Lot 406 Gordon Street, Trafalgar, popularly known as Number 28 Village, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), is now appealing for assistance to rebuild the home where she had been raising her children since the death of her husband in 2024. Semple, who works at the Number 28 Health Centre, said her brother had taken the children to school shortly before the fire started.

She was near the front of the property, speaking with her mother, when she heard a loud noise. Initially believing someone had lit a fire in the yard, she went to investigate and discovered that her house was burning. “So, I was on the bridge and I told my mother that I am going to stay outside a little bit and then I’m going home just now. … Then when I listened again, I heard the big noise. Right? So, I said, somebody must have made fire in the yard. So, when I come in now to go and see who light fire… So, when I come now, I see it is me house burning down,” she recalled.

The fire destroyed the wooden upper section of the building, leaving charred uprights, collapsed roofing sheets and the remains of the family’s possessions scattered across the property. Semple’s 68-year-old father, Ray Semple, who lives in another house at the front of the property, said he was preparing to leave home when he heard a noise at about 08:30h. “I was preparing to go out. I was standing by this window preparing to go out at 08:30h, and I heard something, like if somebody threw something on my house. So, I rushed out to see what was happening on the other side when I saw the house in flames,” he recalled.