Sascha Wil­son

A 55-year-old man was trapped in a house he al­leged­ly set on fire and had to be res­cued by neigh­bours yes­ter­day morn­ing. The home be­longed to his rel­a­tives, An­n­marie Don­awa, 61, and her sons, An­dre and Ron­dell. Ron­dell, a young ca­lyp­son­ian, is in Eng­land study­ing law. His moth­er is ex­pect­ed to leave T&T on Fri­day to at­tend his grad­u­a­tion. Rel­a­tives said the man set the house on fire be­cause they spoke to him on Sun­day about his un­de­sir­able habits. The fire start­ed around 11 am, po­lice said. In­ves­ti­ga­tors said he wait­ed un­til Don­awa, a nurs­ing as­sis­tant at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, and An­dre left for work be­fore he went in­to the house.

The man, who lives in an ad­ja­cent apart­ment, used match­es to set fire to a mat­tress in one of the bed­rooms. Short­ly af­ter neigh­bours heard him scream­ing for help. They ran in­to the build­ing and pulled him out. He re­ceived mi­nor burns about his body and was tak­en to the hos­pi­tal where up to late yes­ter­day he was be­ing treat­ed. Fire-fight­ers at­tached to the Mon Re­pos Fire Sta­tion ar­rived in time to save the build­ing from be­ing de­stroyed. The back of the four-bed­room con­crete house was gut­ted, but the en­tire build­ing was wa­ter soaked. When the man is re­leased from hos­pi­tal he is ex­pect­ed to be charged with ar­son, po­lice said. Mon Re­pos po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.