When fire broke out in Esperance Village, south Trinidad, yesterday all Lisa Narine could do was grab her three-year-old son, Avinash, and join her other two children in the road and watch their home burn to ashes.
At least 15 people were left to find a shelter last night as the fire destroyed two houses belonging to Narine’s father-in-law, Sonny Sooklal, and his cousin, Seereeram Ramdhan. Sooklal’s sons spent the afternoon dousing the flames that reignited hours after firefighters left.
Only Narine and her children were home around 11.30 am when they spotted smoke coming from the upper front bedroom of their two-story, five-bedroom, wooden and concrete house.
She explained: “I was inside with the baby (Avinash) on the bed and the other two children were on the back step. I heard a noise like something fell and at the same time my daughter ran inside to answer the phone. “As I was coming outside to see what caused the noise, the children shouted out that there was a fire upstairs.
When I went outside to the front, I saw the curtain in the front room upstairs falling and I told them to run outside. I grabbed Avinash and we ran into the road.” Relatives said within minutes, Ramdhan’s home caught fire because of strong winds and the close distance between both houses.
They said both homes were destroyed within ten minutes and by the time firefighters arrived, it was to prevent damage to another neighbour’s home and extinguish the rubble. On learning her home was destroyed, Narine’s mother-in-law fainted on the road in Palmiste. Paramedics treated her and she remained seated under a tree for the remainder of the afternoon.
Sooklal, 58, and Ramdhan, 48, said their homes were worth about $300,000 each and all their families were left with were the clothes on their backs. Sooklal’s sons — Capildeo and Boodram — both lost their Nissan AD wagons, valued at $150,000 and $67,000 respectively.
Councillor for the district, Marsha Khan, along with the Disaster Management Unit of the Penal/Debe Corporation gave out mattresses to the families. Khan said she was trying to get them food cards.