Fire guts Petit Valley home

AN afternoon fire gutted a home on Majuba Cross Road in Petit Valley on March 21. Around 3.30 pm, residents heard a loud explosion and then thick smoke enveloped nearby streets.

Fire officers received a call reporting the fire around 4 pm and arrived on the scene 15 minutes later.

Newsday visited the scene at 6 pm and spoke with residents of the area, who had gathered on the street to watch as fire officers began packing up their equipment to leave. As smoke cleared, it could be seen that the centre of the one-storey brick house was burnt out, leaving the roof without support and the decorative concrete-block walls blackened.

Michael Alleyne, 90, and his son, who were in the house at the time, were rescued by concerned neighbours before being taken away by ambulances.

Odette Newalo, who lives next door, was alone when the fire broke out.

"I didn’t know. I thought it was a car on fire. I heard a loud explosion, which is why I thought it was a car," she said.

When her home filled with thick smoke, she realised her neighbour's home was on fire. Her daughter, Kathy-Ann Newalo, was in the area when she first received a call about the blaze.

"I saw the smoke from all the way on St Lucien Road. When I turned onto Loshon Road, I thought it was my house before I realised it was next door."

Two young men, Emmanuel De Frietas and Aleem Alikhan, were at their Loshon Road home when they saw the smoke and went to assist. The Newalos praised their quick action for saving Odette and their home.

"They are the heroes of the day. They got my mother out of the house and made sure she was safe," said Kathy-Ann.

"I was actually home working and I saw the smoke," said De Freitas. "We did what we could do. It had nothing to do with the house on fire. The next thing to do was to stop this house from catching."

De Freitas and Alikhan used the Newalos' hose and a fire extinguisher to prevent the fire from spreading past the wall between the properties.

As part of standard procedure, the fire services notified the TT Electricity Commission (T&TEC), as electricity lines were affected. A truck was dispatched to disconnect the electrical supply while fire officers battled the blaze.

T&TEC North Division foreman Fergus Cudjoe said preliminary investigations indicated the fire was not caused by an electrical fault.

Newsday, in a phone call to the Four Roads Fire Station, was told investigations into the cause of the fire are still ongoing.