At least 15 people were left homeless yesterday afternoon when gunmen set fire to four houses at Clifton Hill, Laventille. Residents said they were living in fear as the gunmen threatened to set fire to every house in the area.
Police said around 4.15 pm yesterday, four men were reportedly seen throwing molotov cocktails into several houses. Residents immediately called the police.Officers from the Besson Street Police Station, Inter-Agency Task Force, Guard and Emergency Branch and firefighters from the Wrightson Road station responded.
One of the victims of the arson attack, Jacqueline Job, is a mother of four which includes three disabled children. She said she now has nowhere to live.Her children suffer from a speech impediment.
Job said in an interview: "I get disability money to get by so right now I work for them (children) and no salary for me. We on the road now and they don't have a change of clothes. All the groceries I buy burn up in the house and we have nothing to eat."I don't know whose house I going by. People kind of funny these days."
Job said she was cooking for her children when she heard loud gunfire. She added: "We could have get kill. My children does catch fits. I say I would stay home and clean the house and the drain when I hear the shots. I say we not going out until it finish. "When I look outside the house next door on fire. Next thing I see my house catch also. Imagine if I wasn't home," she said.
Job said she applied for a house from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) since 2006.She said: "I apply for housing in Chaguanas since 2006 and I never get no reply and nobody never call. They say it in the system."
Job said gunmen had been targeting the area since last week because of gang warfare between Clifton Hill and nearby Beverly Hills."The people who they in war with move out of the area already. That is stupidness and nobody interferes with them. For hours and hours last week they shoot up the place, and when the police come they run. I beg the police to keep one jeep up here to keep them away," she said.
Drama on Clifton hill
Job said the area did not have any water because of a leaking main."We beg WASA to come and fix a burst pipe because we don't have no water. If it had water I could have keep wetting the house but we have no water and we right by the reservoir."
Job said she was living in fear because gunmen could return to the area."They might come back tonight because they say they coming back and would light every house on fire," she said.Another of the victims, Andy Huggins, the father of two, said gang warfare was to blame for the fire.
