Fire guts Curepe house

“God is good we will survive,” said 82-yearold Bassie Teeka, owner of the house. “The house and what was in it is material things. We have to be thankful for our lives.

We would have been worse off if someone died in that fire. I am just thanking God that everyone is safe.” Newsday understands that Tunapuna Fire officers responded to a report of a fire at #5 Rapsey Street, Curepe at about 7.40 pm on Thursday, but when they arrived on the scene the house was already engulfed in flames. Fire officers could only contain the fire and stop it from spreading to neighbouring homes, as the blaze burned the two storey building to the ground.

Teeka told Newsday yesterday that when the fire started, she was tending to one of her sons, Anthony, who was bed-ridden after a fall crippled him seven years ago. Along with the bed-ridden man, six children and two other adults were at the house when the fire ignited. All ten of the occupants of the house safely escaped the blaze, but lost everything that they owned.

“By the time the fire trucks came everything was burnt down. Not a single thing was saved.

Everything burned to ashes,” said Teeka. The woman and her family - now homeless - had to depend on the kindness of two neighbours, the Mohip and Jashwah families, to shelter them on the night of the fire.

Teeka expressed concern for her bed-ridden son, who is being cared for, while staying at one of the neighbours’ houses.

“To tell you the truth it would be easy for me, because I could go by one of my nephews, but I have to see about my son and he is bed-ridden.

I have to take care of him on the bed. So it is hard for me to go anywhere,” Teeka said.

Up to press time yesterday, the Fire Prevention Unit were still trying to ascertain the origin of the fire.