Two se­nior cit­i­zens’ lives end­ed in tragedy yes­ter­day af­ter they per­ished in sep­a­rate house fires—one in Point Fortin, the oth­er in Mal­ick. Their deaths bring to five the num­ber of el­der­ly peo­ple to die in house fires for the year so far.

Yes­ter­day, de­spite valiant at­tempts by res­i­dents of a gat­ed Point Fortin se­nior cit­i­zens com­mu­ni­ty to save their neigh­bour trapped in his burn­ing apart­ment, 75-year-old pen­sion­er Michael Cor­num died.

While the cause of the blaze was still be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed up to late evening, res­i­dents be­lieve the fire start­ed in the kitchen where Cor­num’s charred re­mains were lat­er dis­cov­ered by fire­fight­ers.

David Corn­wall, 70, who lived in the apart­ment ad­join­ing Cor­num’s at Techi­er Vil­lage, re­called that he was awak­ened by a noise short­ly af­ter mid­night.

“When I get up I see my neigh­bour’s side on fire and he try­ing to put it out with a rag.”

He said he called out to their next-door neigh­bour Stan­ley Dick, 69, and ran fur­ther up the road to alert the ma­tron Char­maine Bil­ly.

Dick said each apart­ment had a fire ex­tin­guish­er, so he grabbed his own, got two oth­ers and hur­ried across to help Cor­num. “My at­tempt to save him wasn’t suc­cess­ful be­cause when I broke the win­dow to try to open it, the thing was so hot that I suf­fered burns on my fin­ger and my back so I could not as­sist him.

“At that point in time, he was bawl­ing for help—‘Al­lyuh, help me! Al­lyuh, help me!’ When the fire en­gulfed ... the smoke ... we could not do noth­ing.”

Shak­ing her head in dis­be­lief, Bil­ly re­called how she al­so tried to save Cor­num and end­ed up be­ing treat­ed for smoke in­hala­tion at the hos­pi­tal.

“He was bawl­ing out for help, but we could not get on to him. When we broke the win­dow, the smoke just came gush­ing at us and we hear­ing him bawl­ing and I just couldn’t reach him.

“I just get sick and the am­bu­lance take me to the doc­tor,” lament­ed Bil­ly.

Ex­plain­ing that there were 11 homes, each di­vid­ed in­to two sep­a­rate one-bed­room apart­ments in the gat­ed com­mu­ni­ty, Bil­ly said it was the first time in the 18 years she worked there that such a tragedy oc­curred.

“I want to know how this hap­pened,” she said.

Cor­num was the un­cle of Guardian Me­dia Se­nior Re­porter Kevin Felmine. Cor­num’s sis­ter re­called that in his ear­li­er years, he was a well-known ca­lyp­son­ian in the Point Fortin com­mu­ni­ty known as “Sir Gal­ba” and was a for­mer work­er at the Point Fortin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion.

She said he was loved in the com­mu­ni­ty and will be missed dear­ly. Mean­while, Corn­wall, a mem­ber of Tor­na­does Steel Or­ches­tra, lost all his be­long­ings as the fire al­so rav­aged his apart­ment. He, how­ev­er, has been as­signed to an­oth­er unit.

Any­one will­ing to as­sist him can con­tact 338-2115.

Of­fi­cers from the Fire Pre­ven­tion Unit re­turned to the scene yes­ter­day as in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue in­to the cause of the blaze.

Com­mu­ni­ty mourn­ing af­ter Mal­ick pen­sion­er

dies in house fire

Mean­while, Mal­ick res­i­dents are mourn­ing the death of a 78-year-old man who died in a fire at his home ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Po­lice said Win­ston Blake was at his home on PeaceVille, Up­per Sev­enth Av­enue, at around 12.40 am when his wife, who was in an­oth­er room of the house heard him shout­ing for help.

On check­ing, she saw fire near his bed.

She tried to pull him out of the room and out of the house but ran when the flames be­gan spread­ing across the room quick­ly.

Neigh­bours heard the com­mo­tion and tried to help, but were un­suc­cess­ful.

Fire­fight­ers from the San Juan Fire Sta­tion were con­tact­ed and they ex­tin­guished the blaze.

They found Blake’s charred re­mains on the floor of the bed­room.

Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the neigh­bour­hood yes­ter­day af­ter­noon to try and speak with Blake’s rel­a­tives but were told by neigh­bours that on­ly he and his wife lived at the home.

His wife was not at home at the time.

Neigh­bours said Blake was se­ri­ous­ly ill at the time of his death.

One res­i­dent said an am­bu­lance vis­it­ed the home on Mon­day morn­ing, hours be­fore the fire start­ed, but he re­fused to go with the at­ten­dants to the hos­pi­tal.

“I re­mem­bered see­ing the am­bu­lance out there. They stayed a while be­fore even­tu­al­ly leav­ing. I went over and spoke with him even be­fore they called the am­bu­lance for him some time ago, but I re­mem­ber even then he was telling me he didn’t want to go and stay in the hos­pi­tal,” the res­i­dent said.

“Who knows, maybe if he went with the am­bu­lance he would have been alive.”

Blake’s neigh­bours said he and his wife were long­time mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty and would of­ten be vis­it­ed by oth­er res­i­dents who of­fered them sup­port.

One res­i­dent said while she was not sure what caused the fire, she re­mem­bered see­ing flames on an elec­tric­i­ty pole near the house.

Mor­vant po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

House fires claim 3 oth­er lives

• In June, an el­der­ly man from Chatham, south Trinidad, was burnt to death in his home. Ezekiel Ju­ba, a busi­ness­man and ac­tive mem­ber of the com­mu­ni­ty said to be in his late 70s, was alone at his Beach Road home when the fire oc­curred. His wife was said to be abroad vis­it­ing fam­i­ly.

• In ear­ly Ju­ly, an el­der­ly man died in a house fire in Laven­tille.

East­man James, of Lp 13, East­ern Quar­ry, who was bedrid­den and blind, lived in a wood­en struc­ture. When the blaze was ex­tin­guished fire of­fi­cers found James’ re­mains in the burnt rub­ble.

• Just last week, a 75-year-old Clax­ton Bay man per­ished in a fire af­ter his home was al­leged­ly fire­bombed. John An­dall, an am­putee of Spring­vale, died, while his wife man­aged to es­cape.

Po­lice be­lieve the tar­get was a rel­a­tive who was not home at the time.