Marabella fire leaves 7 homeless

A family of seven was left homeless when fire gutted their house at 164 Union Road, Marabella yesterday morning. According to an eyewitness report, the fire started around 10 am in an upstairs back room and quickly engulfed the entire two-storey concrete and wooden structure. By the time fire tenders from the Mon Repos Fire station responded to the blaze, the house was well alight. The house was owned by Ena Edwin, 64, who lived in the house with her two sons, Ezekiel, 36, Robert, 34, and four grandchildren.

When Sunday Newsday visited the scene Robert Edwin, who lived in the downstairs apartment of the house with his four children said the family had lost everything in the blaze. “We weren’t able to save anything. The children’s books, clothes, uniforms, everything gone,” he said, including household appliances and furniture. Edwin said he was in the backyard tending to the family’s ducks when he heard his mother screaming for help and on reaching the back room saw it already ablaze. “The mattress was already on fire, and the flames were already in the roof and my first thought was to get my children to safety,” he said. Edwin also sustained a gash on his left forehead when he ran into a protruding iron post while freeing some animals. And while fire officials say investigations have to be conducted to determine the cause of the blaze, Edwin said an electrical fault may be to blame for the blaze. He said since the beginning of the year residents along Union Road have complained to TTEC about frequent power surges in the area. He said the last big power surge occurred in January, destroying a number of their appliance and televisions. “And all TTEC did was to tell us to send in our claims to their insurance company and that was it,” he said.