While sev­er­al fam­i­lies are plan­ning ac­tiv­i­ties for the long East­er week­end, it will be a som­bre one for the Mo­hammed fam­i­ly from Pe­nal.

Last Sat­ur­day a fire gut­ted the fam­i­ly’s home at Julien Branch Trace, Rochard Road, leav­ing four adults, and three chil­dren home­less.

The fire al­so dam­aged an­oth­er house near­by be­long­ing to a rel­a­tive and de­stroyed his $75,000 Sportero L200 van. Zaiy­da Mo­hammed, 22, said she was alone at home with her two chil­dren, ages eight months and three years old. Her hus­band, par­ents and 16-year-old sis­ter had gone out.

Mo­hammed said she was wash­ing clothes down­stairs with her two chil­dren when she smelt smoke, but she thought a neigh­bour was burn­ing de­bris. Re­count­ing the or­deal dur­ing an in­ter­view on Tues­day, Mo­hammed said:

“I came out­side and when I watched I saw a lot of smoke. When I came by the van, I saw smoke start­ed to blaze up on the house. I just ran un­der the house, take up my two chil­dren and ran to my aun­ty home in front to call for help. Be­fore any­body could run to save any­thing the house done blaze up with fire al­ready.”

Lament­ing that the house was de­stroyed, Mo­hammed’s moth­er Yrawa­tee, 43, said every­thing they owned went up in flames. She said her son’s house, lo­cat­ed near­by, was dam­aged and his new­ly pur­chased van was de­stroyed. While re­lieved and hap­py that her daugh­ter and grand­chil­dren were un­harmed, Yrawa­tee said the fam­i­ly would need as­sis­tance to re­build their home.

“We stay­ing in my son’s house, the part that was not burnt. We need help. Any help we get we will ap­pre­ci­ate it be­cause we lost every­thing. Every­thing lost in the fire,” she said.

Fire of­fi­cers from the Siparia Fire Sta­tion re­spond­ed to the blaze since the Pe­nal Fire Sta­tion had no trucks. A T&TEC crew al­so came to the scene. The cause of the blaze is still to be de­ter­mined.

Any­one will­ing to as­sist the fam­i­ly can con­tact 307-0061.