In the blink of an eye, a Siparia couple lost two decades of memories and accomplishments after a fire gutted their home.
Valarie Gopaul, her husband Harold Benny, and their two children are now homeless. Fortunately, their neighbour has given them lodging until they could piece their lives back together. The fire occurred on Saturday. Gopaul recalled that around 1.24 pm they were about to leave in their car to go to the beach when they saw their house on fire.
“As we stepped in the car and was about to left my husband looked out of the window of the car and saw that our house was on fire. When we look we saw the whole top of the roof was in a blaze.”
Gopaul said they were unable to salvage any of their items. “My daughter, 17-year-old daughter, just finish CXC, all her books get destroyed. Night after night she would stay up and do notes upon notes and everything went up in flames, nothing, nothing had saved.”
She said her daughter got seven O’Levels but decided to take a year off before pursuing a degree at the University of the West Indies.”
Benny who works as a truck helper said, “We had dryers, we had TVs. We had music set, anything you could think about. I work very hard from days of Pepsi.” He estimated his losses at over $200,000. The couple has no idea how the fire started.
However, Benny said on Saturday they experienced low voltages. Gopaul, a school cleaner, added, “It is very hard to know that for the past 24 years, all of our memories, all the struggle, everything just went down. It is really hard and sad to know that we whole history since we started out, it just gone.”
Anyone willing to assist the family can contact 496-4961 or 373-7878.