Two people have been displaced following a house fire at Inverness Avenue, Cocoyea Village, San Fernando.
Guardian Media understands that the occupants - a man and his aunt - left for church in Princes Town on Sunday morning.
While there, they received a call that their home was on fire. When they returned around 10.30 am, the house was already engulfed in flames.
Fire fighters from the nearby Mon Repos Fire Station quickly contained the blaze, preventing it from damaging a next-door dwelling house and the South Regional Administration office of the Ministry of Agriculture. Fire officials confirmed that no one was injured in the blaze.
When Guardian Media visited yesterday no one was at home but security officer Richard Collins who works at a nearby grocery recalled what he witnessed.
He said, "I was smelling something like paper burning, so I checked down at the warehouse in the grocery, but I didn’t see anything. All of a sudden, I started to see some black smoke, and when I went down the street, I saw the whole downstairs of the house was engulfed in fire. In about two or three seconds, the whole thing collapsed—the roof and everything."
Collins said the fire department arrived swiftly. Fire officials said yesterday that the cause of the blaze was still being investigated.
Meanwhile, Guardian Media understands that the fire victims have received temporary housing. The Disaster Management Unit of the San Fernando City Corporation and Mon Repos/Navet councillor Nigel Couttier have reached out to them fire to offer assistance.