Two tots burnt to death

Tragedy struck a family of 14 yesterday when two of its youngest members died in a fire yesterday at their modest home in Duncan Village, San Fernando.

Dead are sisters Tisha Friday, 5, and her baby sister Tricika, 5 months, whose charred remains were found lying on the iron railings of what was left of their beds. Relatives said the children’s mother, Annalisa, was in total shock over the loss of her baby daughters and was taken for treatment at the San Fernando General Hospital. The children’s father, Dexter Friday, was at work at the time of the incident.

Reports said the children’s mother was outside the house at Papourie Road washing clothes, while the children slept. According to the children’s 16-year-old uncle, Jamal Baptiste, who was one of seven members at the house, the fire started at approximately 1 pm. He said both children were fast asleep on two separate beds in the back room, when he heard Annalisa tell one of his sisters to wake up the children and take them out of the house. “Me and my sister, Stacy, was watching TV, Annalisa was washing and Holline and Kathy was babysitting when I hear Annalisa call out and say the back room on fire,” Jamal said.

Recounting the moments leading to the tragedy, he said the fire started in the back bedroom of the one-storey concrete flat and quickly spread throughout the house, the flames consuming the wooden doors and walls within minutes. The still obviously shaken young man recalled that he ran to the room and tried to douse the fire with a bucket of water but he was overpowered by the flames. “I run outside by a neighbour and tell them to call the fire brigade and when I come back, Annalisa tell me the children still inside the house, but the whole house was on fire by then,” he lamented.

The Pleasantville Senior Comprehensive School student said the family had lost all of their possessions in the fire: furniture, school books, uniforms, clothes, and appliances. Olive Baptiste, owner of the house, could not hold back tears as she looked in horror at the ruins of the house. “I don’t know where we will sleep tonight,” she moaned.
Fire tenders from the Mon Repos and San Fernando stations responded to the scene promptly, but their efforts were unable to save the flat wooden and concrete structure. When they arrived, the bedroom in which the children had been asleep was already gutted. The children’s father rushed from work, and upon arrival at the scene, broke out into tears immediately. Neighbours and relatives sought to comfort him but he rejected their consolations. Fire services are yet to determine the cause of the blaze and were up until late yesterday combing through the ruins.

ASP Dyo Mohammed is spearheading investigations.