Help pours in for Mayaro fire victims

SEETA PERSAD

Help has poured in for a Mayaro family of six who lost their home in a fire on Wednesday morning.

Kenny Moore, his wife Judy Mason and their four children were left homeless when their house at Balata East, Bristol Village, Mayaro, was destroyed in a blaze. The couple stayed in a galvanised room close to the burnt house on Friday night while their children stayed at the home of relatives in Rio Claro.

Councillor Shaffik Mohammed met with the family on Thursday following which a temporary structure was erected to support Moore and Mason. The Rio Claro/Mayaro Regional Corporation provided mattresses, clothes and food hampers to the family. “There has been an outpouring of support for the family at this time as villagers and businesses have stepped in to provide for the family of six,” he said, noting that a nearby business is assisting in the removal of debris.

Mohammed said he would approach the National Commission for Self-Help Limited for financial aid to rebuild the house. He said villagers had also stepped in to offer school books and uniforms for three of the couple’s children, Katilyn, seven, Kerry, 11, and Kerry-Anne, 12. They also have a ten-month-old son, Kennedy.

Yesterday, Mason said she was thankful for all she had received from the public but really wanted her family to be together.

Mason again praised the four men who rescued her children.

Jerome Hassanali, Rossie Gunpat, Tevin Straker and Jason Diggans, employees of Southern Maintenance Services Ltd, Pt Galeota, got the children out of the house when they saw it on fire on their return to work after a break.

Straker posted on his Facebook page: “I want to commend the fire service of Trinidad and Tobago (Mayaro station) for their great work, they were professional indeed and the response time was the most accurate I’ve ever seen. ‘We were the first to observe the fire by passing on the road and remember that house had kids living there and turned back only to realise there were kids in the house. We swiftly rescued the kids and called the 990 hotline. I called them at 11.44 am and by 11.55 am a video was shot with the firetruck containing the fire.”

Police report the fire started at the front of the house at 11 am. At the time, Mason was not at home having gone out to purchase some items. The children with their father who was tending to his garden at the back of the house and was unaware of the fire.