Firemen let building burn

BELIEVING a woman’s frantic telephone call for help to be a prank call, firemen reportedly failed to respond to the scene of a fire for more than three hours, and within that time, a Tabaquite house and family business together valued $1.5 million went up in flames. Everything was destroyed during the early morning hours yesterday. “They (firemen) said they believed it was a prank call,” an angry Saira Harricharan said as she stood in front of the gutted building at Carry Road and Main Road corner in Tabaquite.

Harricharan’s father, Wilfred Sagar, lived upstairs with ten other relatives and operated a grocery and bar on the ground floor. He was alerted to the fire by a crackling sound around 2.25 am and was ableto get his family out of the burning building. A depressed Sagar said he believed if the fire service had responded immediately his businessplace would have been saved. Acting Divisional Fire Officer (South) Anthony Alexis yesterday said he was not aware of  the fire but assured that he would initiate a thorough investigation into the victim’s claim that firemen took three hours to respond to their distress call.

However, Alexis’ promises were no comfort to Harricharan, who said after she called 990 (the Emergency Fire hotline) and alerted the authorities about the fire, someone called five minutes later to verify the information. The angry woman said 30 minutes later, the Couva Fire Service called to say they believed the fire call was a prank. “I was standing in front of here watching my home burn and I was telling them it was not a prank,” Harricharan added. She said another relative, who, ironically, is a fire officer, called the fire service and identified himself as a fireman and said the fire was no prank.

However, by the time firemen arrived at around 5.30 am, the entire property was already reduced to smouldering ashes. Angry relatives told Newsday a fire-hose disconnected from the fire tenders and water which should have been extinguishing the remaining fire, instead gushed onto the road. “They (fire officers) were very unprofessional. They treat Tabaquite like if it is just bush and probably they thought it was a small parlour that was burning,” an enraged Harricharan charged. She said in the end villagers took on the role of fire-fighters and formed a bucket brigade. Sadly, they were no match for the rapidly spreading inferno.

The woman said her father’s businessplace had been the centre of activity in the community for the past 35 years and claimed that an electricity transformer located near the property “blew up frequently.” This has led the family to believe the fire may have started from an electrical fault. Visiting the scene were a party of officers from Gran Couva police including Cpl Ralph Satnarine, PCs Ramlogan and Thomas. TTEC and fire officials are expected to return to the scene today to continue investigations. Meanwhile, the family of ten are trying to make alternative housing arrangements.