Unattended children burnt in house fire
Stabroek News
June 8, 2004
Two young children were severely burnt yesterday in a fire at their North Sophia home.
Rashuna Taylor, aged two years old and Retisha Taylor, aged four years old were yesterday nursing third degree burns at the Georgetown Public Hospital. The incident is said to have occurred at about 2 pm.
Stabroek News understands the children were alone in the upper flat of the house when flames erupted in a bedroom. Relatives who live downstairs along with neighbours rushed to their rescue.
According to reports, they doused the flames and managed to pull the children to safety, minutes after the fire started. The room, in which the toddlers were was torched but the rest of the building was saved.
Relating details of the incident as told to him, the girls' father, Randolph Taylor said the two children were left alone in a bedroom, while their mother was away. He said his children are not usually left alone since they are still very young.
But yesterday there was a change in events and the toddlers were left unattended. He explained that his relatives live downstairs and would look out for the young ones.
Some time around 2 pm, Taylor received a telephone call and rushed home. Taylor speculated that a fuse box in the bedroom might have malfunctioned and sparked the fire.
He said there was nothing incendiary within reach in the bedroom for the toddlers to have played around with.
According to him, an explosion was heard coming from the upper flat just before the fire broke out. This he said might have been the television set which he said was close to the fuse box.
The toddlers' mother was too distraught to speak. She is pregnant with her fourth child. The couple's other daughter, Reshma, aged five, was away at school when the fire started.