RADHICA DE SILVA
Tragedy has struck in Gasparillo after a two-storey house went up in flames, killing a pregnant mother, a five-year-old girl and an elderly grandmother.
Dead are Keisha Grant, who was six months pregnant; Amy Chatergoon, a pupil of Caratal RC Primary school and 73- year-old Everleina Miller.
Police said the fire started around 2:15 am at Caratal Road, Gasparillo.
Relative Nikita Baptiste said she was asleep when she got up to the smell of smoke. She then saw flames leaping from a room on the second floor.
Baptiste started evacuating her relatives as the flames spread wildly. Amy and Grant tried to escape making it to the downstairs portion of the house but they were trapped and could not get out in time.
Two other relatives Kimberly Chatergoon, 16, and Rosetta Bramble, 55, suffered burns and are currently warded at the San Fernando General Hospital.
Fourteen people were in the house at the time of the blaze.
Actg FSO Jackson and a team from the Mon Repos Fire Headquarters arrived on the scene and stopped the blaze from spreading to other homes.
The entire house was burnt flat. When the flames were extinguished, Trey Chatergoon, 21, identified the charred corpses.
When Guardian Media arrived on the scene, relatives, neighbours and friends lined the street looking on as wafts of smoke rose from the rubble. Some wiped away tears
T&TEC officials are on site repairing charred electrical wires and restoring the supply of electricity.
Guardian Media will bring you more as this situation unfolds.