Blaze leaves 14 homeless

ANTICIPATION of a joyous Christmas literally went up in smoke when fire of a yet to be determined source destroyed a house in Siparia  rendering 14 persons including nine children homeless. Christmas shopping and cleaning have now been replaced by the basic search for shelter by the Ramnath family with less than 22 days before Christmas Day. The house and furnishings were valued $250,000. The fire which gutted the house on Wednesday night rendered Victoria Ramnath, her husband Ramberan Ramnath, her mother Melda Andrews, 88, and Victoria’s sister’s six children,  aged one to 14, homeless.

Victoria’s eldest daughter Arlene, 30, her (Arlene) husband Franklyn Pollidore and their three children aged four to 11, who also lived in the five-bedroom house, were also left homeless and have since sought shelter at the homes of other relatives. As she sifted through the rubble Ramnath said she left home around 6.10 am on Wednesday with her daughter Arlene to  go to Port-of-Spain, and was not at home when the fire started. “When I came home around 6 pm, I see neighbours in the road and my house on fire,” Victoria said.

Relatives said fire was seen coming from the kitchen and those who were at home when the fire broke out made a hasty retreat from the inferno. “We already put up the Christmas tree and all the lights around the house. Today we were supposed to paint,” Victoria cried. She added that within recent times, there were frequent electrical surges and power outages which led her to suspect that the cause of the fire was electrical in nature.  Siparia fire officials and police officers revisited the scene yesterday and are continuing investigations.