Senior Reporter
jannelle.bernard@cnc3.co.tt
A fire at an apartment at Clifton Towers, St Paul Street, Port-of-Spain, left a Housing Development Corporation tenant with burns about his body after he tried to extinguish the blaze himself yesterday.
However, the HDC, which owns the building, said Sheldon Lee was an illegal tenant and did not even have authorisation to live there.
When Guardian Media spoke with him after the fire, he explained how it started.
“About half past seven I smelled smoke in my bedroom. When I went to see what going on, the mattress on fire, the fan was on fire, I take the mattress lift it up, tried to put it upside down to cover the fire, and the fire reach the curtain overhead and continue blazing non-stop,” Lee said.
The father of two said he was lucky to be alive, having suffered burns about his body.
“Meh back burn up. I feel sick—all meh things gone, I have nothing,” Lee lamented.
HDC said while it was awaiting the official report from the Fire Service, initial reports suggested the blaze was caused by a faulty electrical fan in the apartment.
But residents complained of frequent power surges.
“The panel box at the front of the apartment not working for the longest while, it spoiling things so probably it is a power surge,” a resident said.
Added to that, the residents claimed all the emergency contingencies, including sprinklers and fire alarms in the HDC building, failed.
While the Fire Service was praised for its efforts, those in the neighbourhood lamented that officers were not well equipped to reach the high-rise apartment on the ninth floor.
“The government need to put something in place to make the fire officers job easier to make it more accessible for high-rise buildings,” a resident said.
Divisional Fire Officer in charge of Public Relations, Dexter Hodge, said all vehicles with hydraulic lifts are being serviced at this time, following an incident earlier this year where a fire officer was injured when he fell from a lift. However, Hodge said the officers were able to access the apartment located on the ninth floor using the stairs.
“The government need to put something in place to make the fire officers job easier to make it more accessible for high-rise buildings,” a resident said.