Pensioner: I blame myself partly for child's fiery death

SEVENTY-NINE-YEAR-OLD Ameera Sahadath is blaming herself in part, for the death of nine-year-old Aneilia Butler who died in a house fire on Wednesday afternoon, because she believes it was her lighter used to cause the blaze.

Newsday visited the home on Thursday and found the pensioner outside with some of her belongings. She said the lighter, which she normally used to light mosquito coils at night, was picked up by Aneilia and sometime later the house was on fire.

“The little girl was playing with the lighter but I did not know because I was sleeping. She is a child accustomed doing it. When I look now I see smoke and the house is on fire. I call her skinny girl and when I see the fire I shout out ‘skinny girl come!’”

She added that her grandson managed to rescue his two other children but was unable to save Aneilia who was found on her bed.

Fire officials said at around 1.50 pm the received a call that a house was on fire at Sixth Street, Second Avenue, Beetham Gardens. When fire officers put out the blaze, they were told that a nine-year-old girl was unaccounted for. They checked the house and later found Butler's body in one of the bedrooms.

“I could not save she because, look at me, I was shaking. It hurt me because she was a nice child, a blessed child. I blame myself because I had no right to put the lighter there. I blame myself for that but not for the place catching fire. I not blaming myself for that because she had enough sense not to touch that.

"But I sorry. I just sorry because it hurt me. She was a real good child.”

Sahadath said she did not want to be relocated and hoped to get the assistance needed to rebuild her home. Sahadath and her two grandsons and granddaughter lived at the home with their families.

Member of Parliament for the area Fitzgerald Hinds told Newsday that such assistance is not only available but had been done in the Beetham Gardens recently after another house fire earlier this year.

Hinds took umbrage to the Newsday’s headline for the article in Thursday’s paper saying the use of the word “killed” in the context carried a particular connotation that was insensitive and, to him, geared towards generating sales.

Regarding Sahadath’s desire not to be relocated, he said, under the Ministry of Housing through the Land Settlement Agency, the government assisted a family in rebuilding their home and likewise Sahadath could be assisted.

He added that the rebuilding also allowed for the construction of apartments that would be used in the future to house others who might be displaced in the community for whatever reason.

Additionally, he said he assisted in providing Aneilia’s family with temporary accommodation and basic food supplies for the night and had sourced temporary shelter for them.

He thanked the community for its assistance during the fire and afterwards and the disaster management unit of the San Juan/ Laventille Regional Corporation for its assistance in detailing the families’ short- and long-term needs that the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services would be addressing.

“As man, I was very distressed when I heard about this incident as a as a father myself and as a human person. And because I'm the member of Parliament for the area, I made contact with the family. I made contact with the police and I got a full picture of what had happened.

"I recognise the trauma is great and the need for counselling which the Victim Support Unit of the police service is able to provide. And if necessary, the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services will provide even more comfort.”

Sahadath said while she awaited assistance to rebuild her home, she received two mattresses and food supplies to help her as she remained in the house with one of her grandsons, Terrance Noel.

Noel said he was worried about the roof of the house collapsing while he and his grandmother remain in the water soaked half for the house.