The Guyana Fire Service has revealed preliminary findings indicating that the tragic fire in No. 64 Village, Corentyne, which claimed the lives of a mother and her four children, may have been maliciously set. Divisional Fire Officer Clive McDonald confirmed that the fire, which occurred in the early hours of November 12, is being treated as a suspected arson.
Divisional Fire Officer, Clive McDonald.
The victims, 34-year-old Hemwatie Singh, and her children, Kelvin Ramjatan (14), Cindy Ramjatan (11), Brandon Ramjatan (10), and Tomesh Ramjatan (2), were all trapped in the upper flat of their two-storey wooden home when the blaze erupted. Their 17-year-old brother, Kevin Ramjatan, managed to escape unharmed.
According to the teen, he was asleep on the verandah of the upper flat when he was awakened around 2:00 a.m. by flames coming from the lower flat, where his father’s car was parked. He immediately ran downstairs and opened the door to find his mother and siblings trying to escape. However, the intense flames at the front of the house forced them to retreat to the upper flat, where they became trapped.
Kevin said he managed to escape but could not alert the authorities immediately because he had no phone, and nearby residents did not respond to his calls for help. He eventually went to his grandmother’s house in the village to inform relatives, but by the time they returned to the scene, the house was fully engulfed.
The 17-year-old survivor was initially taken into custody but, according to Region Six Commander Shivpersaud Bacchus, he was released due to insufficient evidence to warrant his detention.
Police confirmed that five burnt bodies, believed to be those of Hemwatie Singh and her children, were found among the debris after the fire was extinguished. The remains were transported to the Skeldon Public Hospital Mortuary, where post-mortem examinations will be conducted.
The two-storey wooden house, owned by Rohan Ramjatan, a 36-year-old cattle farmer, and an adjacent unoccupied wooden and concrete house were destroyed in the blaze. At the time of the fire, Ramjatan was in police custody, assisting with a cattle rustling investigation.
Residents reported that a Guyana Power and Light (GPL) wire had caught fire last week and again the night before the tragedy. However, authorities have not confirmed if this is related to the incident.
