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Thursday, May 22, 2025

Historic San Fernando house goes up in flames

by

787 days ago
20230326

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

 

A cen­tu­ry-old his­toric house in San Fer­nan­do used re­cent­ly to film the lo­cal movie Taint­ed Blood, has burnt to the ground.

The house was owned by the pres­i­dent of the Greater San Fer­nan­do Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce Ki­ran Singh.

The fire start­ed af­ter mid­day on the up­per floor of the build­ing at Cha­con Street, San Fer­nan­do, op­po­site the Sur­gi-med Clin­ic.

It was part of the few re­main­ing his­toric build­ings in South City.

Speak­ing at the scene, Singh said it was heart­break­ing to see his child­hood home go up in flames. He said the house was owned by his grand­fa­ther Ram­narayan Ram­phal Ma­haraj and had been va­cant for al­most ten years.

Re­cent­ly, Singh per­mit­ted a home­less man to stay at the house oc­ca­sion­al­ly,

“This house was an icon in the city land­scape for many years. This is the house where I grew up, I saw the de­vel­op­ment of San Fer­nan­do over the years. I en­joyed Car­ni­val from this lo­ca­tion, walk­ing down Pen­i­tence Street. I en­joyed many ac­tiv­i­ties in down­town San Fer­nan­do over the years. It is with a strong lev­el of grief that I have to wit­ness the de­struc­tion of this house to­day,” Singh said.

Giv­ing thanks that no one was in­jured and that the fire oc­curred on a Sun­day so it did not dis­rupt traf­fic, Singh said he was al­so grate­ful that he had videos of the house be­fore its de­struc­tion.

“We had hopes we would have re­mod­elled the house. It was a vin­tage house back in the day. But with the pan­dem­ic and the down­turn in the econ­o­my, cash flow did not al­low us to re­fur­bish the house. That will not hap­pen any­more, un­for­tu­nate­ly. But we will live by the his­to­ry of it through pic­tures and fam­i­ly mem­o­ries,” he added.

Singh said he did not know what caused the fire.

He said re­cent­ly, me­dia per­son­al­i­ty Hans­ley Ajod­ha filmed his movie Taint­ed Blood in­side the his­toric house.

Keron Wil­son, the son of CNC3’s jour­nal­ist Sascha Wil­son, is one of the stars of the movie. It will be shown at the Na­pari­ma Bowl on April 11 at 7 pm. Tick­ets cost $50. 


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