Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

A Point Fortin woman and her two chil­dren es­caped a fiery death on Sat­ur­day, when a man, who vi­o­lat­ed a pro­tec­tion or­der, al­leged­ly set their house ablaze.The 27-year-old sus­pect re­mained in po­lice cus­tody last night and is to be charged with ar­son. In­ves­ti­ga­tors said at around 10.45 am, they re­ceived a dis­tress call from Tami­ka Thomas, 23, who said a male rel­a­tive had set her house at War­den Road, Point Fortin, on fire.Thomas told po­lice that the man came in­to the wood­en house and be­gan as­sault­ing her be­cause of a pend­ing court hear­ing. He was re­port­ed­ly in­censed be­cause she had tak­en out a pro­tec­tion or­der against him.

Ac­cord­ing to Thomas the man lit a stove and ig­nit­ed tow­els he had doused with kerosene, be­fore throw­ing the tow­els on a bed.The man then threw kerosene on the floor and ig­nit­ed it with a cig­a­rette lighter, Thomas told the po­lice.She said she grabbed her two chil­dren and ran for her life. Po­lice of­fi­cers ar­rived at the house min­utes lat­er and cap­tured the as­sailant about 20 me­tres away.