Two children, aged six and four, were on Tuesday, May 24, burnt to death in a fire which destroyed the wooden shack they called home at Dazell Housing Scheme, Paradise, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
Dead are Julius DeClou, six, and Josiah DeClou, four, who were left alone at home by their mother, twenty-six-year- old Ashana Letlow.
Julius DeClou
According to Letlow, she would usually go to her mother’s house, a stone’s throw away, to iron the older son’s school clothes; but, on this occasion, she took only her year-old son Joshua with her as Josiah was asleep.
“I left to go press Julius’ school clothes, and I didn’t even take 10 minutes… he asked me ( to allow him ) to come (with me), but I told him no, because Josiah was asleep and I had the baby…” the devastated mother recounted.
It was whilst she was returning home that she saw smoke coming from the little shack. “I dropped my baby (Joshua) and called my nephew; but by the time we got here the fire had already taken over the house… we couldn’t do anything,” Letlow cried.
Josiah DeClou
The burnt bodies of the two children were visible, as little Julius’s body was braced to the wall, while his younger brother Josiah’s body lay on his bed. From all indications, Josiah died in his sleep while Julius may have been attempting to escape. The mother noted that after she had left her house at around 06:00h, she had placed a padlock on the door so that the children could not leave. She said she feared leaving the door open because of a trench nearby.
In an interview with Guyana Times International, Letlow noted that her home was without electricity, neither was her stove lit when she left the house. Nevertheless, she admitted the possibility that the six-year-old could have gotten hold of the matches, as they were within his reach. “I don’t know! I really don’t know… the stove dint light, and I don’t have lights!” the distraught woman stated. Relatives told this newspaper that Letlow was not in the habit of leaving her children alone at home. “Wherever you see she you see them three children… she don’t lef them nowhere…” one woman said. Residents of Dazell Housing Scheme noted that when the Guyana Fire Service arrived on the scene it was too late. Approximately an hour after the fire was extinguished, investigators were at the location trying to ascertain the cause of the fire. A source close to the Guyana Fire Service stated that electricity theft and the possibility of the stove being lit at the time the woman left the house are not being ruled out. A wire possibly used to source electricity illegally was seen just a short distance from the house hidden in a nearby gutter.
