RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Yet an­oth­er house has been de­stroyed by fire, this time at Sun­rees Road, Pe­nal.

The own­er, Troy Fa­bi­en, 38, of Go­sine Av­enue, Sun­rees Road, Pe­nal told po­lice he se­cured his house around 9 am on Sun­day and went to Pe­nal to do some er­rands.

While there he got a call that his house was on fire.

By the time he ar­rived back home, the wood­en storey house val­ued at $40,000, was de­stroyed. Fa­bi­en told po­lice he did not know what caused the fire.

A par­ty of fire of­fi­cers, led by act­ing FS­SO Fe­lix and oth­ers from the Pe­nal Fire Sta­tion, re­spond­ed and ex­tin­guished the fire. PC Teles­ford and Moreno, of the Pe­nal Po­lice Sta­tion vis­it­ed the scene and are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

Sev­er­al hous­es have been de­stroyed by fire over the past few weeks as a re­sult of bush­fires.

Last week, three mem­bers of a La Ro­maine fam­i­ly suf­fered burns when fiery splin­ters from a bush fire ig­nit­ed a tree and spread to their home, burn­ing it to the ground.

Christo­pher Bran­ka, 60, suf­fered se­ri­ous burns to his head, back and hands while Bri­an Bran­ka, 61, and Yas­mine Mo­hammed, 50, suf­fered mi­nor burns to their hands and shoul­ders. The fam­i­ly had been asleep at their South­ern Main Road, La Ro­maine home when the fire start­ed.

In ear­ly April, Kem­ba Mor­ris, 42, and her eight-year-old daugh­ter Za­ya both per­ished when fire de­stroyed their Quinam Road, Siparia home.

On March 20, a bush fire spread through the grassy hill­sides of Soledad Road North, burn­ing down two hous­es owned by broth­ers Toolsie Ram­dass-Singh, 50 and Thack­oor Ba­boolal, aged 59.

And in Feb­ru­ary, a $2 mil­lion house at Sum Sum Hill, Clax­ton Bay was al­so de­stroyed by fire.

Fire­fight­ers say a se­vere lack of equip­ment and a short­age of fire ten­ders have made their job dif­fi­cult.

Pres­i­dent of the Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion Leo Ramkissoon said 25 sta­tions through­out T&T, there are eight op­er­at­ing with­out a fire truck. These sta­tions are Bel­mont, Mor­vant, Ch­aguara­mas, Ch­agua­nas, San­ta Cruz, San Juan, Siparia and Point Fortin. There are cur­rent­ly five sta­tions with­out wa­ter ten­ders: Ch­aguara­mas, Wood­brook, Bel­mont, Mor­vant and San­ta Cruz.

Ear­li­er this week, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds said $30 mil­lion worth of fire equip­ment will ar­rive in T&T next month.

Among the equip­ment pur­chased were wa­ter ten­ders, a mo­bile wa­ter sup­ply, and a chem­i­cal in­dus­tri­al ten­der. These ve­hi­cles are ex­pect­ed to be as­signed to fire sta­tions in Point Fortin, Pe­nal and Ma­yaro.