Aripero cancer patient dies in housefire

A FIRE which partially destroyed a house, claimed the life of a bedridden cancer patient early Friday in Aripero Village, Rousillac.

John "Jango" Scott lived alone in the one-bedroom wooden house at Brothers Lane, Silver Stream. His relatives lived nearby in other houses. The father of six would have turned 69 on December 8.

His weeping daughter Desiree Charles recalled that earlier this month, doctors said he had about six more months to live considering he had stage four cancer.

At the beginning of the year, he could no longer walk, and Charles started taking care of him.

Charles recalled that around 4 am, she was awakened on hearing her father call out her name. When she looked outside, she saw flames coming from his house. That was the last time she heard his voice.

The family, including her brother, and neighbours ran to his rescue. They managed to take the bedridden man from the burning house. Using buckets of water, they put out the flames.

"Jango did not have to go like this. He could not walk and was not strong enough to get out in time. They (relatives) said he still had a pulse when they took him out. The ambulance came, but by then he was already dead," Charles said.

The family believes that a lighted mosquito coil might have caused the fire. The house was not wired for electricity.

"Many times, we talked to him about moving the cock set because he moved a lot in his sleep. Sometimes I spend the whole day with my father and go home 11 pm and 12 midnight. Two Wednesdays ago, he came out the hospital," Charles said.

Scott, the great grandfather of three, was born in Grenada and migrated to Trinidad when he was five. He previously worked as a construction labourer.

Charles said she saw him alive around 8 pm, when he went to bed the night before.

WPC Monsegue of the South Oropouche police station is investigating.