Man dies in fire

Rampersad’s charred remains were found during damping operations carried out by firefighters of the Princes Town Fire Station who received assistance from their colleagues of the Mon Repos Fire Headquarters, San Fernando. Investigators are now treating the fire as accidental since they suspect a lighted candle may have led to the disaster.

Jaglal occupied the downstairs while his son and daughter-inlaw occupied the top floor of the wooden building. A police report stated that about 2 am yesterday, neighbours reported hearing loud explosions and saw relatives jumping through the window from the top floor.

An alarm was raised but, by the time the fire appliances arrived on the scene, the entire ground floor was already engulfed in flames.

They were informed that Jaglal never made it out. His son, Mahadeo Hosein, who was at the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday awaiting the results of an autopsy, told Newsday that his father lived in the house with another son, Alexander Baksh and his wife Chantal.

“My father had one (candle) lit and it must have fallen from the wind or something, I don’t know,” said Hosein.

“He is a sickly person as well; he can barely move. When the smoke took him he must have fainted and he burned to death right there.” Hosein said Rampersad was a fisherman by trade but was also a gardener. The autopsy confirmed he died from smoke inhalation