A man who lost every­thing in a fire, which de­stroyed three hous­es, is call­ing on the neigh­bour who set it to apol­o­gise.

Po­lice said yes­ter­day that a neigh­bour con­fessed to of­fi­cers that he was the one who set fire to a bam­boo patch near his home on Sun­day at Mis­sion Road, Freeport, which spread and de­stroyed three hous­es and six ve­hi­cles. A pet dog named Rex was al­so killed in the blaze.

How­ev­er, po­lice of­fi­cers said they were un­able to make an ar­rest as they are await­ing an of­fi­cial re­port from the T&T Fire Ser­vice.

In the af­ter­math of the fire—Meena Omar­dath, 76; Gee­ta Omar­dath-Ra­jku­mar, 54; Chan­dradeo Omar­dath, 53; Ro­ry Ram­per­sad, 58 and his grand­son Ri­car­do Ram­per­sad, 11, were left home­less.

The in­ci­dent oc­curred at 9.30 am, af­ter the man lit a bam­boo patch. Due to the high winds, the fire spread to three homes near­by and a garage where ve­hi­cles and car parts were stored, burn­ing them all down to the ground. Two hous­es were wood­en and gal­vanised and one was made of con­crete and wood.

The res­i­dents, who were in their homes at the time of the fire, were al­so forced to flee.

Ro­ry Ram­per­sad said he was un­able to save his pet dog Rex.

“The heat was too much and we couldn’t get to him. Very sad be­cause he was with us for the past three years,” he said.

Ram­per­sad said he is ill and re­ceives pub­lic as­sis­tance. “Be­cause of the fire and see­ing that I lost every­thing, I end­ed up in the Cou­va Hos­pi­tal. I lose all my mon­ey and doc­u­ments, in­clud­ing my dri­ver’s li­cence and na­tion­al iden­ti­fi­ca­tion card,” Ram­per­sad ex­plained.

He said the neigh­bour who set the fire had not even apol­o­gised.

“The last time we saw him he was talk­ing to the po­lice. We were told that buy back every­thing and send him the bill but he has not come to any of us not even to apol­o­gise,” Ram­per­sad added.

Meena Omar­dath plead­ed for help to get back on her feet again.

“The lit­tle pen­sion mon­ey I have and get­ting, I start­ed build­ing up by me lit­tle by lit­tle but this fire take every­thing away. Any help we can get we’ll be very ap­pre­cia­tive,” Omar­dath said.

Any­one will­ing to help the vic­tims can con­tact Michelle at 771-9027.