Family knocks fire, police for poor response to arson attack

FIVE members of a South Oropouche family narrowly escaped with their lives after their neighbour's home was destroyed by fire on Sunday morning. The fire had spread to theirs.

Homeowner Denise Acevero-Hosein of Mon Desir Road, Dow Village, South Oropouche, said if the police and fire services had responded when she alerted them to a man’s erratic behaviour earlier that evening, the losses suffered could have been avoided.

“We could have lost the entire house or even lives last night, or be homeless this morning,” Acevero-Hosein told Newsday.

With one week before Christmas, Acevero-Hosein said the fire had left her family without power as the meter to the house and electrical wires were burnt.

She said TTEC would not be able to restore power until they undertook rewiring and inspection exercises.

Distraught by the incident, Acevero-Hosein related that the man, who is now in police custody, had a history of unusual behaviour.

Police said the man would be charged with arson and was expected to appear before a Siparia Magistrate on Monday.

She said around 9.30 pm on Saturday a fire was started on a mattress in the bedroom of a wooden house next to hers.

Acevero-Hosein she was able to extinguish that fire with the help of her son after her neighbour was able to throw it outside.

She said she called both the fire and police stations as the man continued to behave erratically, walking up and down with crumpled newspapers and a sheet.

The police told her they were attending to a road traffic accident and would come later. She said the fire services told her if she saw fire to call them. They never came.

“I called back the station and told them this man looking like he was going to do something, to please come, because I was smelling something like plastic burning.

“Fire told me to lime outside a little bit, they will come. I waited on the porch until after midnight and they never came.”

She said she went to bed and told her son to stand guard.

“Around minutes before four this morning, I woke up and saw the whole place bright.”

Her neighbour’s house was engulfed in flames.

“We picked up what we could gather and ran out of the house.”

Fire and police arrived on the scene shortly after and were able to save her building. Her neighbour’s home was completely destroyed.

The flames destroyed glass window panes, electrical wires, bash board and electricity metre at her home.

The cost of damage to her property is yet to be estimated.

Acevero-Hosein said she was outraged, “because this could have avoided, had the police and fire responded and removed the man from the scene.”