3 DIE IN GRANDE FIRE

A house fire in Cooblal Trace, Toco Main Road, Sangre Grande has killed three people.

A police report from the Sangre Grande Police Station identified the victims as Natasha Nancoo, 48, Enrique Reyes, 19, and a ten-year-old boy.

At around 7 am, next-door neighbour Rohan Narine and his wife were awoken by a loud explosion, which he described as sounding like a gunshot. Narine saw plumes of thick black smoke covering the house, which was built of board and concrete.

Speaking to the media later that day, Narine said, "We come outside and at that moment, I started panicking, I wasn't sure what was going on – remember, this was just a split-second thing happening."

He said he could feel sweltering heat coming off the burning house, which worried him, as he had many flammable liquids – paint thinners and glass bottles – nearby for his job as a straightener and painter. He told his son to move the cars from the yard onto the road, after which he began watering the galvanise that was used to fence around his yard.

"Then the heat got more intense, so we went quite by the car – about 50 feet away – and we were still getting heat on that side, so we told the neighbour to call the fire brigade, who got here in about ten minutes.

"But it felt like an hour, how things were going."

Narine said before the fire service began containing the fire, the house collapsed. He added that he still could not believe what happened, and it had left him shocked.

Asked about his neighbours, Narine said they kept a low profile, with just pleasantries exchanged among them, or glancing at the youngest son playing in the yard. He added that the family had not been living there long as they moved in around six-eight months ago, so they were not close.

Narine said he saw the family's car parked outside, but hoped they were not home, as sometimes their family members took them out, and he nor the other neighbours got no response when calling out to the occupants of the burning house.

The car was also affected by the fire: it had melted headlights and significant damage to the front.

"It's only when the house burned down and we were watching around, we saw the bodies three-quarter burned – that's how we knew they were in there. It's only when the people (homicide unit) came to take the bodies, then we realised exactly (what happened)."

Narine said he and his family are still processing the shock.

"It really wasn't a nice scene early this morning, but this is what happened."

Newton Thomas, senior fire officer of the Sangre Grande Fire Station, said the cause of the fire was still being investigated by the Fire Prevention Unit of the TT Fire Service (TTFS). He said the crew did well in containing the fire.

Newsday, however, observed that after the fire services left the scene there was a small residual fire at the back of the structure that a neighbour had to extinguish.

The police report said officers interviewed the people who made the call to relevant authorities around 6.55 am and were accompanied by senior superintendent for the Eastern Division Ryan Khan, acting Insp Kistow, Insp Sylvester and a team from Region II Homicide. The scene was then processed by crime scene investigators.

District Medical Officer Prince also visited and ordered the remains taken to the Forensic Science Centre pending autopsies.

The police are also investigating the cause of the fire.