Fire leaves family of four homeless

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A Princes Town family of four, including two children, are now homeless after a fire ravaged their home on Saturday night.

Returning to the spot where her house once stood at St Julien Road yesterday was too much for Nesha Bennett to bear as she surveyed the site that was now littered with ashes and rubble.,

Bennett had to be physically assisted by her brother Kenny after she almost collapsed on seeing the devastation done to her home. Bennett, a housewife, lived there with her common-law husband Teddy Mohammed, a construction worker, and their two children ages 12 and six.

The family was not home when the fire started.

However, a neighbour told Guardian Media that around 7.20 pm, they heard a loud explosion and then saw Bennett’s house on fire. Worried that the family was inside, the neighbour said her husband ran towards the burning house and called out to the family. However, she said there was a second explosion.

Bennett said her husband had gone to work and she took the children to a friend’s home about an hour before the fire.

“I just got a phone call stating that the house was in flames. When the fire truck came and police, the house was already in ashes,” Bennett told Guardian Media.

As the tears streamed down her face, Bennett lamented that everything they owned was destroyed in the blaze.

“We lost every single thing, all the kids’ books, laptop, everything. TV, DVD, deep freeze, washing machine, bed, stove,” she said.

She said the house had two bedrooms and they lived there for about nine years.

Bennett is now asking the public for assistance with construction materials so they could rebuild their home.

“I would like if I get back a house and well all my child stuff for school, everything just went. We don’t have anything at all, no clothes, nothing. It is totally frustrating right now.”

Meanwhile, firefighters are still trying to determine the cause of the blaze.

Anyone willing to assist the family can contact 338-0989 or 315-6222.

(SW)