A 99-year-old pen­sion­er was killed in a fire that broke out at her home in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day.

Po­lice and Fire of­fi­cers said the blaze be­gan around 1.30 pm at the home of Clara Jack­son on Bor­de Street and Dar­bain Lane.

Po­lice said Jack­son lived at the house with four oth­er rel­a­tives. She was last seen alive by her daugh­ter at 10.30 am yes­ter­day. She was home alone when the fire broke out and was un­able to es­cape the flames that en­gulfed the prop­er­ty.

Fire­fight­ers from the Wright­son Road Fire Sta­tion ar­rived at the scene and be­gan ex­tin­guish­ing the rapid­ly spread­ing fire. How­ev­er, the struc­ture even­tu­al­ly col­lapsed.

Fam­i­ly mem­bers, too shocked to speak, were seen gath­er­ing near the site as they processed the heart­break­ing news.

Fire of­fi­cials are try­ing to de­ter­mine the cause of the fire.

—Ot­to Car­ring­ton