sto­ries by RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

An out­pour­ing of sup­port for Er­rol Sookhans­ingh and his fam­i­ly who lost their home in a fire at Wood­land on Sat­ur­day.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia Ltd, Sookhans­ingh said he was grate­ful for all the calls he re­ceived.

“Peo­ple have called from all across the coun­try, pro­vid­ing gro­ceries and cloth­ing. A few peo­ple promised to help with hard­ware ma­te­ri­als. I feel very thank­ful that so many peo­ple care about us enough to help us,” he said.

Sookhans­ingh, who suf­fers from di­a­betes and hy­per­ten­sion, said he felt shaky and dizzy but de­spite this, he still went to the fire scene.

His wife Vidya al­so thanked every­one who called them in their time of need.

“I feel so hap­py be­cause we have re­ceived gro­ceries and cloth­ing. I know that Je­ho­vah God is look­ing af­ter us,” she said.

She said her son who at­tends the Shi­va Boys’ Hin­du School need­ed new school uni­forms as all were burnt in the fire. Thank­ful­ly most of his school­books were saved as he had gone to study with them at his grand­par­ents’ home be­fore the fire start­ed.

Gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha Vi­jay Ma­haraj told Guardian Me­dia that they will al­so lend as­sis­tance to the fam­i­ly.

He said he will co-or­di­nate with school prin­ci­pal Dex­ter Sakal to as­sist.

“The Board and school will of­fer as­sis­tance. We will work col­lec­tive­ly. The norm is to ap­proach hard­ware in the area to sup­ply monies in ma­te­r­i­al and guar­an­tee pay­ment,” he said.

Coun­cil­lor for Av­o­cat/San Fran­cique Dood­nath Mayrhoo said he was al­so thank­ful that the fam­i­ly was get­ting as­sis­tance.

“They have lost every­thing and I am hop­ing we can get the re­build­ing ma­te­ri­als in a week or two. We have to wait for the fire re­port be­fore we can be­gin to clear the rub­ble. The cor­po­ra­tion will be help­ing with clean­ing up and clear­ing the site,” he said.

The fire broke out around 7.45 am at Pluck Road, San Fram­cique, Wood­land home. No one was there at the time.

Be­fore the fire start­ed elec­tri­cal lines were seen spark­ing up.

The fam­i­ly had been reel­ing from the ef­fects of the dev­as­tat­ing Wood­land floods which took more than a week to sub­side. 

Any­one want­i­ng to as­sist the fam­i­ly can call Sookhans­ingh at 318-1183 or 346- 7392.