Pensioner killed in Gasparillo fire

DESPITE the quick response from residents and firefighters to a house fire, the flames were too intense for them to rescue a pensioner on the morning of January 23 in Gasparillo.

After the fire was extinguished, Hollister Hamilton, 79, was declared dead at the scene at Thompson Street Extension. He was wheelchair-bound and had an eye condition.

His common-law wife, Diana Francois, 53, suffered burns and was taken to the San Fernando General Hospital.

The neighbours managed to remove a pet parrot to a nearby house, but it died shortly after.

Around 7 am, flames were seen coming from the wooden house.

At the time, the couple and a female adult were inside. Two other adult relatives and two children had left earlier for work and school.

One neighbour, Abiola Bramble-Stephen, recalled seeing smoke and initially thought someone might have been burning rubbish. She then realised the house was on fire and saw someone trying to hose it down.

Bramble-Stephen immediately called an ambulance and Fire Service.

She and other relatives and neighbours joined in, trying to throw water on the burning house. Bramble-Stephen used a fire extinguisher and tried to get as close as possible, but had to back away as the heat became unbearable.

“We got buckets and hoses to try to put it out, but it was already too far gone. Uncle Hollis was still in the house. He is no more. We could not get him out. We tried, and within ten minutes, the fire service arrived, cordoned off the area, and began to throw water on the house. They did as much as they could, but there was not much they could do,” she said.

“Auntie Diana was inside, shouting for Uncle Hollis to get out. But he was bedridden and couldn’t move. In trying to save him, she suffered burns on her hands, chest and the back of her neck, from what I saw.”

She added that people in the street grew up as one family.

The fire brought back painful memories of a house fire on Caratal Road, Gasparillo, in June 2022, which claimed the lives of five of her relatives, including a pregnant woman and a five-year-old girl.

Officers from the Mon Repos Fire Station and Insp Dookhoo and other police from the Gasparillo Police Station responded.

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.