SASCHA WIL­SON

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Quick ac­tion by rel­a­tives and neigh­bours helped save a San Fran­cique home from be­ing de­stroyed by fire on Fri­day, but two broth­ers who live there are now ap­peal­ing for help to re­pair their home.

The blaze broke out just af­ter 5 pm at the house on Pluck Road, San Fran­cique, Pe­nal, where broth­ers Balka­ran Mungroo, 40, and Ri­car­do, 30, live.

Balka­ran Mungroo, who suf­fers from a ner­vous con­di­tion and does not work, said he was out­side plant­i­ng pump­kin seeds when the fire start­ed.

“I was plant­i­ng some pump­kin seed. My cousin from next door say smoke com­ing from the ceil­ing. I run and take the hose and put it in my room.”

Mungroo said fire had en­gulfed the en­tire room, and the heat al­so caused the wall by the kitchen to crack and de­stroyed the elec­tri­cal wiring in the house.

His cousin Ojah Bridge­lal, who lives next door, said he no­ticed the smoke through the vent near the ceil­ing.

He said he act­ed quick­ly and alert­ed the oth­er neigh­bours. “I just move fast, brisk. I move so fast I give them fel­las the hose, about three or four of them, and they calm down the vol­ume of the fire there.”

By the time fire­fight­ers ar­rived about 20 to 25 min­utes lat­er, he said they had con­tained the blaze.

Siparia May­or Dood­nath Mayrhoo, who vis­it­ed the fam­i­ly yes­ter­day, not­ed that the dam­age caused by the fire was ex­ten­sive.

“As you can see, the ex­ten­sive dam­age that has been done to the house, an en­tire room has been de­stroyed. The struc­ture of the home has been de­stroyed par­tial­ly. The fridge is gone, the mi­crowave gone, and the TV is gone,” Mayrhoo said.

He es­ti­mat­ed loss­es to be around $100,000.

Mayrhoo said he had al­ready reached out to Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe, the MP for the area, and al­so in­tend­ed to con­tact Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment Van­dana Mo­hit.

“We will re­al­ly be look­ing for­ward to some as­sis­tance from the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and any­body else who wants to as­sist the fam­i­ly in re­pair­ing this house and have it back to a liv­ing con­di­tion,” he said.

Fire of­fi­cers were still try­ing to de­ter­mine the cause of the blaze, but Mungroo said it’s pos­si­ble a fan may have trig­gered the fire. “The on­ly thing I could think about is the fan be­cause the fan don’t work one time. You have to plug it on and when it get kind of hot, that is give it a kick start, and it starts to work,” he ex­plained. Mungroo said he lost all his per­son­al be­long­ings, in­clud­ing doc­u­ments.

Mungroo’s broth­er Ri­car­do, who was at work when the fire be­gan, said they would ap­pre­ci­ate any as­sis­tance to re­pair their home. Any­one will­ing to help can con­tact the broth­ers at 387-1472.