Family escapes death as house collapses

A PREGNANT mother and her infant son escaped death when their Ravine Sable home collapsed in the wee hours of yesterday morning.

Monique Abraham, 31, who is seven months pregnant, told Newsday she was asleep around 2.30am when she felt the bed “drop” and she was thrown against a wall.

Her young child, 20-month-old Keon Abraham, who was asleep on the same bed, was almost thrown through a window that flew open, but was saved by the quick action of his father, Ricardo Abraham, who snatched him before he could fall through.

When neighbours were able to pull the three to safety, Abraham said they realised the wooden pillars supporting the house had collapsed.

Little Keon’s face was bruised and scraped by the near-miss and he clung to his mother as she recounted the horrifying tale yesterday.

“I only feel the drop and I get pelt from the bed to the wall on the next side of the room,” she said. “I hear my husband bawl out for me, but before I could answer, he was bawling for the baby, and the baby was crying because he had already started to slide out of the window.”

Abraham said she did not know how old the wooden structure, was but she has been living there for the past two and a half years.

Her 13-year-old daughter, Jessica Johnson, who has Down syndrome, also lives with her.

“Thank God she wasn’t here when it happen, because her room mash up with the fall, I don’t think she would have survived it.”

Abraham said her family has nowhere to sleep and will have to rely on the generosity of neighbours for shelter when night falls.

A lot of their belongings were damaged when the house collapsed, and incessant rainfall had only made the damage worse, she said.

Vice-chairman of the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation Ryan Rampersad said he was trying to help the family get a Self Help grant to rebuild their home.

He also offered to activate an emergency shelter to accommodate them if they need shelter.

Abraham is appealing to anyone who can assist her family to contact them at 320-0376 or 396-1886.