Eighteen children were rescued from what could have been a major disaster as a fire broke out at a children’s home in Tacarigua early yesterday morning.
A 17-year-old child is now in police custody and is being questioned in relation to the fire after a security guard reported that she was seen acting erratically and tugging at exposed electrical wires just before the fire started.
The fire, which gutted the top floor of the Children’s Authority of Trinidad & Tobago’s, Crown Street, Tacarigua facility, began around 1.30 am yesterday morning.
None of the 18 female residents was injured.
According to a police report, shortly before the fire started, a security officer said he noticed the teenage girl destroying items in the facility’s front office.
The guard said the girl then pulled some exposed electrical wiring and its sparks started the fire.
He told police he tried to extinguish the blaze but was unsuccessful.
Up to late last evening, the Trinidad and Tobago Fire Service (TTFS) said the cause of the blaze was still inconclusive.
A neighbour told Guardian Media that by the time Fire Services arrived, the blaze was contained and the 18 girls were already in a bus waiting to leave the area. Police said the girls are now at the St Dominic’s Children’s Home.
Another neighbour told Guardian Media that hours before the fire started, the Child Support Centre was visited by other first responders.
Speaking under a condition of anonymity, a resident said that on Wednesday screams and shouting was heard coming from the facility.
An ambulance and police vehicle soon came to the centre and one person was taken in the ambulance.
Guardian Media posed several questions to the CATT, including what caused the child to act up, why there were exposed wires at the centre and what happened prior to the fire that needed a response from both the police and ambulance services?
“The Authority is currently conducting an investigation into the circumstances which led to this morning’s fire at the Child Support Centre. The Fire Services is also conducting its investigation. Therefore, at this time, the Authority is not in a position to comment further on the matter,” was the only response we received yesterday.
West Indies cricketer Lendl Simmons is the owner of the building.
Simmons said the CATT rents the property from him and is four years into a five-year lease agreement.
Simmons said he could not put a monetary value on the damage to the building just yet.
Guardian Media was told that Child Support Centres are fully owned and run by the CATT.
It’s described as a place of safety for children where they are supposed to stay for a maximum of 12 weeks by law during which they are to be rehabilitated to be reintegrated back into the community.
