-leaving seven homeless
FIRE, suspected to be of electrical origin, yesterday gutted a four-bedroom 2-flat house at 666 Block 8, Mon Repos, leaving seven persons homeless and millions of dollars in losses. Both the residential dwelling on the top floor and the bottom floor, which housed the family’s grocery store and a single bedroom, were ravaged in the fire which started around 11:30 hrs.

Now homeless are 35-year-old Parvatti Balkarran, her husband, Geerdhar Prettipaul and their five children between the ages of four and 15. Her husband, Prettipaul is said to be working out at sea, and could not be easily reached.

Still shocked and badly shaken as she spoke with this newspaper, Ms. Balkarran recalled that she and her children were downstairs, when a neighbour raised the alarm that the house was on fire. The woman said she looked out of her window and saw fire and smoke coming from the roof from the middle room.

Word quickly spread and neighbours raced to the rescue. They formed a bucket brigade and tried to put the fire out, but experienced difficulty, since the roof is high and cannot be easily reached, and they also feared that since electric power was on, wetting the wires could spark further trouble. The Fire Department in the city was summoned, but because of the far distance, the top flat of the building was well engulfed before they arrived.

They lost practically everything, she said, including her shop stocked with groceries. What was not consumed in the fire was destroyed by water.

Ms. Balkarran said she had another scare of her life, since she immediately called out for her children, made a head count and realised that her five-year-old daughter was not there. She became hysterical, fearing that the child was upstairs in the burning building, but soon learnt that the child was across the road at a neighbour.

Lamenting her losses, Parvatti recalled that they built the home about six-years ago, and only completed the painting job recently. She had great plans for Christmas with the family and was eagerly looking forward to having her husband back at home with them for the occasion. But now, all her plans and dreams have been shattered.

Meanwhile, her eldest son, now 15 and preparing for C-SEC examination, having lost all his books and other school materials, and also very traumatised, is at a great disadvantage. Her eldest daughter too, now 11 and preparing for the National Grade 6 Assessment, is at a similar disadvantage. “I am asking for help for my children, all their book, school clothes and everything burn up. They have to get to school to prepare for exams,” the weeping mother lamented. She however, expressed gratitude to her neighbours for doing all they could to help her and her family yesterday. The family is also grateful to the fire department which did a good job when they arrived on the scene and remained there working for well over two hours.

Electric power was disconnected to the area soon after the fire started.