Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

One year be­fore her re­tire­ment, an es­tate con­sta­ble and her fam­i­ly are now home­less af­ter a fire de­stroyed their Moru­ga home on Wednes­day.

Con­fused and dev­as­tat­ed, Mau­reen Bur­ton, a sin­gle moth­er who built her home over three decades ago, is now ap­peal­ing to the Gov­ern­ment for help to re­build her home and her life.

Nei­ther Bur­ton, her three adult chil­dren, son-in-law nor her three-month-old grand­son were home when the fire start­ed at their 6th Com­pa­ny Cir­cu­lar Road, In­di­an Walk home some­time af­ter 2 pm.

Re­call­ing that a neigh­bour had first alert­ed her about the fire, she said, “Well, to me this felt like a death in a fam­i­ly, So, it’s just like, hol­low, you know. I just feel emp­ty. It’s sad, trau­ma­tis­ing.”

Bur­ton, who turns 59 years old next month, said she worked hard to build her home and pro­vide for her chil­dren.

“I want to just thank God for life and thank God that that (no one was hurt) did not hap­pen. He knows every­thing. He knows why it hap­pened.”

Bur­ton said she had no idea what start­ed the fire, but her fam­i­ly is now sep­a­rat­ed and their lives are in dis­ar­ray.

She said her chil­dren were still pur­su­ing ter­tiary ed­u­ca­tion, and their de­vices and school sup­plies were de­stroyed. She said every­thing she owned was de­stroyed in the fire.

She is plead­ing with the Gov­ern­ment for ma­te­r­i­al to re­build her home or pro­vide a home for her and her fam­i­ly.

“I am call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment, if they could as­sist me as quick­ly as pos­si­ble, ma­te­r­i­al wise, or if they could of­fer me an HDC house. I will ap­pre­ci­ate that as well.”

Any­one will­ing to as­sist the Bur­ton fam­i­ly can con­tact 728-4907.