RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

In a valiant at­tempt to douse a rapid­ly spread­ing fire which be­gan on the roof of a house in Mara­bel­la, res­i­dents ral­lied to­geth­er, cre­at­ing a buck­et brigade.

But de­spite their de­ter­mined ef­forts, the flames proved re­lent­less, de­vour­ing the con­crete struc­ture lo­cat­ed on Enid Street, Mara­bel­la, as their wa­ter sup­ply ran out.

By the time of­fi­cers from the Mon Re­pos Fire Head­quar­ters ar­rived, the fire had al­ready swept through the roof and wood­en ceil­ing.

All five mem­bers of the Braith­waite fam­i­ly, in­clud­ing a 79-year-old grand­moth­er, es­caped the fire.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, a con­trac­tor who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said they were do­ing work on the roof of the Braith­wait­hes’ house when the fire start­ed.

“The ceil­ing and roof were wood­en so we were do­ing some ren­o­va­tion to build a steel roof. A spark ig­nit­ed the ceil­ing and in a mat­ter of min­utes, the fire start­ed,” the con­trac­tor said.

Us­ing wa­ter from two bar­rels, the work­ers and vil­lagers came out and be­gan dous­ing the fire.

How­ev­er, the con­trac­tor said when the wa­ter ran out, the fire be­came un­con­trol­lable.

“I have to say there are a lot of good peo­ple in this coun­try. When the fire start­ed every­one came out and made a buck­et brigade to throw wa­ter on the house. But like every­thing else in this coun­try, even the wa­ter ran out,” the con­trac­tor lament­ed.

Neigh­bours of the Braith­waite ma­tri­arch said she had built an ex­ten­sion to cater for el­der­ly peo­ple.

The house had four bed­rooms.

Mara­bel­la po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.