Ten homeless after South fire

Police believe that the fire was accidentally started at about 9 am by three children who were playing with a lighted candle under a bed in the two-storey house.

Lennon Guverra, 33, and his nine relatives, including four children, between the ages of eight years and eight months were yesterday searching for a place to spend the night.

Guverra’s sister, Marsha Panteau, 34, was alone with her three children — Leslieann, eight, Keon, four and Kareem, two — at their home in Jacob Settlement at the time of the blaze.

Yesterday Panteau told Newsday that she left the children in a bedroom in the downstairs part of the house and went outside to wash clothes.

Panteau said shortly after she went to the back of the house she saw a blaze coming from the bedroom.

"When I run up the back step to get my children out of the house they were already standing on the top of the steps," she added.

Panteau said the children were shaken but luckily they were not injured. The woman said her children told her they were playing with a candle under the bed and the mattress caught fire.

"We tried to out the fire but the blaze was too much," she added. Panteau said they were having problems with the telephone reception in the area. By the time they contacted the fire service the entire house was already on fire. An emotional Guverra said he collapsed when he saw the house on fire.

He said their parents, who are deceased, left the house for them and usually on public holidays he hosts a get-together at the house. Guverra said his sister, Leonna Sookermany, 28, her husband, Dane, 30, his other brother Leonard Panteau, his wife Antonia Morgan and their eight-month-old baby also lived in the house.

Guverra is appealing to the Government to assist them. "We were left with nothing except for the clothes on our backs," he added.

Santa Flora police and officers of the Siparia Fire Service visited the scene and are continuing investigations.