Fire leaves 8 homeless

A FAMILY of eight was left homeless when fire destroyed their Point Fortin home last Thursday. Head of the household, Clyde Bholah, said the blaze started in the wooden gallery of his home at Egypt Village and within minutes, spread to the rest of the structure. Bholah said just after 7 pm, while he was watching the news, he heard his daughters shouting. “I hear the children bawl out ‘fire’ and they ran out of the house. I ran out too and I saw the gallery was on fire. Only that evening my wife had varnished the gallery so the fire spread quickly,” Bholah said.

He quickly reversed his $70,000 Mitsubishi pick-up out of the garage while his son Cyril, 24, managed to save his $40,000 Nissan B14 Sentra car. However, the family’s attempts to douse the flames with a bucket brigade proved futile, and the house was destroyed. “All the wardrobes, the deep freezer, a computer and everything just went down the drain. My 16-year-old son, Christopher, is supposed to go to school in two weeks and his books all gone through. We have to buy back his books now and start back from scratch,” the worried father said. Initial investigations pointed to electrical problems as the cause of the fire. Reports indicate that damage to the house and household items is over $75,000. Point Fortin police are continuing investigations.