Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Joy turned to sor­row for 19-year-old Kizzy Grif­fith when she got news dur­ing her birth­day par­ty that her home had been de­stroyed in a fire.The sight of the smoul­der­ing ru­ins of her home, lo­cat­ed at Vic­to­ria Vil­lage Train­line, San Fer­nan­do, brought tears to Grif­fith's eyes as she begged good Samar­i­tans to pro­vide a place for her two-year-old son Malachi.

Grif­fith, whose birth­day was on Sun­day, said she was cel­e­brat­ing with her hus­band Dwayne Blunte, 29, his moth­er, Louise Daniel, 58, and broth­er-in-law, Damien Daniel, 32, at her par­ent's Palmyra home when they got news that the house was on fire.Blunte said by the time they reached home, the en­tire house was en­gulfed. He said every­thing, in­clud­ing new cur­tains they bought for Christ­mas, was de­stroyed in the blaze.

Asked about the cause of the blaze, Blunte said he be­lieved the fire was ma­li­cious­ly set be­cause two weeks ago, a man he knows threat­ened to "burn him out."Ac­cord­ing to Blunte, prob­lems be­gan when his broth­er got in­to a dis­pute with an­oth­er man. "I am try­ing to stay out of trou­ble be­cause I have a young wife and a ba­by so I didn't get in­volved," he said. How­ev­er, he claimed a man al­leged­ly sent his "hench­men" in­to their yard to beat his broth­er.

"These peo­ple were armed with cut­lass and pig­foot. My moth­er could not even get in­to the place," Blunte said. Blunte's moth­er, Louisa, said the fam­i­ly had been liv­ing on the "line" for more than 25 years. She said all their valu­ables, in­clud­ing a nine-piece din­ing set, mi­crowave, fridge and stove, were de­stroyed. She ap­pealed to the po­lice and fire pre­ven­tion of­fi­cers to do a thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion of the al­leged ar­son.

Chair­man of the Na­tion­al Self Help Com­mis­sion Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo vis­it­ed the fam­i­ly yes­ter­day and pro­vid­ed a $15,000 pur­chase vouch­er for the fam­i­ly to be­gin re­con­struc­tion. Man­ga­roo urged mem­bers of the cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ty to as­sist the fam­i­ly. Any­one want­i­ng to help can con­tact the fam­i­ly at 397-2215.Mean­while, po­lice said ar­son was sus­pect­ed. The Ste Madeleine Po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.