Fire, fire

Even as one family in their home was spending precious moments of family-time together - with children eating and drinking and playing and laughing at the feet of the family’s 84-year-old matriarch, Agnes Stannis - came an alarm of fire.

Alas, the fire all too quickly engulfed the home and that next door, rendering 26 persons homeless in the height of the festive season. Fortunately, no-one was killed or injured by the inferno.

Indications are that it is a closeknit community, which we trust will go a long way towards helping the affected families get back on their feet, even as we’d appeal to State agencies, corporate TT and the general public to each pitch in to assist in however small a way.

Coincidentally, the same day a tyre shop and family home burnt down in Moruga, leaving six persons homeless.

Earlier in this Christmas season, some 11 persons lost their home in a blaze at Second Caledonia, Morvant on December 16, while nine persons were rendered homeless by a fire razing their Claxton Bay home on December 12, but fortunately with no lives lost, and we hope all victims can rebuild their lives.

If it is that TT annually sees a seasonal upsurge in home fires, the authorities could seek to avert future incidents by a public education campaign on fire hazards, posed by open flame, gas-tanks and faulty electrical wiring.

Meanwhile we must express our grave concern over what seemed to be an emerging trend of apparent arson against private business places, which in the case of one grocery was followed by looting.

Over a 10-day period before Christmas, some four business- places were targeted by arson attacks, seemingly done with an intent to loot. The four targeted businesses were: the Benefit the People Supermarket in Barataria on December 12; D and J Warehouse in San Juan December 19; Sookhoo Supermarket in Marabella on December 19: and Stackhouse Company Limited in San Fernando on December 22.

At the Barataria supermarket, hordes of looters brazenly ransacked the burnt out premises, in a scene surely sending shudders down the spine of the country’s entire business community, the protective services and all right-thinking people. What the looters may have regarded as a pre-Christmas windfall, to other observers signalled the first steps of a descent into anarchy in a society already destabilised by homicides and other crimes of violence.

While we commend the vigilance of the security guards and business owners in thwarting the arsonists, the authorities must now send a clear message that arson/looting will not be allowed to take root in TT as a phenomenon.

The police must view CCTV footage to try to track down the miscreants in each case. The Office of the Attorney General must review the laws on the books to see if stiffer penalties are needed, or even fresh legislation (on top of standard notions of larceny and criminal damage). We’d suggest the Police Service run a public education campaign to clearly state the illegalities linked to looting, even of a burnt out premises.

Arson and looting are crimes, they pose a danger to life (even of the arsonists and looters themselves) and raise the cost of doing business which will ultimately hit all consumers in our pockets.

In the four cases of arson and four house-fires we are thankful that no lives were lost. We truly hope this is not a topic that we have any reason to return to in the New Year.