Shar­lene Ram­per­sad

A for­eign-used car parts deal­er­ship in San Fer­nan­do was de­stroyed by a fire on Thurs­day (Di­vali) night.

Kar­richa­ran Ma­haraj, the own­er of K Ma­haraj and Sons Ltd, at Palmiste Branch Street, Dun­can Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do, spec­u­lat­ed that the mis­han­dling of fire­works could have caused the $8 mil­lion fire.

"I don't know if it could have prob­a­bly been some­one play­ing with fire­works, I just don't know," said Ma­haraj in an in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian.

But of­fi­cers of the Mon Re­pos Fire Sta­tion, who re­spond­ed to the blaze, say while they are not rul­ing out that pos­si­bil­i­ty, they are not cer­tain what caused the fire as in­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing.

Ma­haraj said it took him 13 years to build his busi­ness and was as­ton­ished to see it de­stroyed in such a short space of time.

His son, Dean Ma­haraj, wife and eight-year-old daugh­ter who lived on the com­pound were able to es­cape with mi­nor in­juries.

Fire in­ves­ti­ga­tors re­turned to the scene yes­ter­day and in­ter­viewed sev­er­al fam­i­ly mem­bers.

Dean Ma­haraj said his fam­i­ly was asleep af­ter cel­e­brat­ing Di­vali, when he heard an ex­plo­sion.

"I heard a noise around 2 am, some­thing like it blew up and when I peeped out I saw the front of the build­ing on fire. I woke up my wife and daugh­ter and we just ran for our lives."

He said the thick, black smoke made it dif­fi­cult to see.

"We had to run out the back, but we couldn't see any­thing. My wife fell a few times and I got a big cut un­der my foot."

The fam­i­ly was treat­ed at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal and re­leased.

Ma­haraj said the build­ing, con­tain­ing the car parts and five ve­hi­cles, was com­plete­ly de­stroyed.

Act­ing as­sis­tant Di­vi­sion­al Fire Of­fi­cer, Ansar Ali, said when they ar­rived on the scene the build­ing was com­plete­ly en­gulfed.

Neigh­bours evac­u­at­ed

?

Res­i­dents of Dun­can Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do, were awak­ened when thick, black smoke filled the air ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing, forc­ing them to evac­u­ate their homes and run out in­to the streets. The smoke was from the fire that de­stroyed K Ma­haraj and Sons for­eign used car parts place.

When the T&TGuardian vis­it­ed the scene yes­ter­day, one res­i­dent, re­count­ed his ex­pe­ri­ence.

"I heard a noise about half one, then the place just full up with smoke," she said. "We had to leave the house and run, all my neigh­bours had to run too."

The woman said wor­ried res­i­dents rushed to res­cue pets and oth­er an­i­mals from the smoke, lin­ing the street for hours, as fire fight­ers bat­tled the blaze.

"Every­body was stand­ing on the next side of the road, there were sick peo­ple, peo­ple with their lit­tle chil­dren and even peo­ple with their an­i­mals."