An 81-year-old woman is now dead after a fire, suspected to have started by an unattended candle, gutted her Bartica, Region Seven house on Friday night.

The dead woman has been identified as Iris Baron.

The Guyana Fire Service (GFS) yesterday confirmed that the fire started around 10.23 pm at Baron’s Lot 203 Mongrippa Hill, Bartica home.

Baron lived alone in the one-storey wooden and concrete structure.

According to the GFS, preliminary investigations revealed that the candle, which was left unattended, fell and ignited combustible materials causing the fire.

A water tender and a crew of firefighters from the Bartica fire station responded to the fire. While they managed to extinguish the fire, Baron perished. Her charred remains were recovered in the house.

The gutter and two windows of a neighbouring house were also destroyed.

A resident of the area, who wished not to be named, told Stabroek News that he rushed to the scene and despite attempts by him and other residents to assist, Baron died. “…People try they best but it [the fire] was too much,” the man said.

In a brief statement on his Facebook page, Bartica Mayor Gifford Marshall described Baron’s death as “horrific”.

‘Maybe there’s more we all could have done, we must let the circumstances remind us to do better,” the post stated.