SIX DIE IN COUVA BLAZEBy Odette Loney Sunday, August 23 2009
FOUR children and a pregnant woman were amongst six who died in an early morning fire which razed a house at Light Pole 608 Southern Main Road, Mc Bean Couva yesterday, shortly after midnight.
Couva fire officers report that two-year-old Elijah Narine; eight-year-old Moses Chinapoo; his brother nine-year-old Chaim and older sister Sarah, 12, were burnt to death along with their eight months pregnant mother Vanessa, 33, and Chenelle Dickson, 22, when fire gutted the two-storey house located upstairs SFM Enterprises Limited in Mc Bean. One person survived, Darren Dickson, Vanessa’s common-law husband.
Vanessa, is the mother of Moses, Chaim and Sarah, while, Elijah is the nephew of 22-year-old Chenelle who also perished. Up until late yesterday no one knew what caused the blaze.
Darren Dickson, 43, according to reports tried to rescue his pregnant wife, step-children and sister from the tragic fire before they were burnt to death. Newsday was barred from speaking to Darren at Trottman Road, Couva, the home of relatives who said he was too grief stricken to speak about the tragedy.
However, Cheneil Dickson, 21, the anguished mother of deceased Elijah told Newsday what Darren recounted to the police and fire officers when they arrived at the scene. She said Darren and Vanessa were asleep in one of three bedrooms when the blaze began. “Elijah and Sarah were in another bedroom while Moses and Chaim slept on a mattress in the living room; Chenelle was in another room when the fire began shortly before 1 am,” said Dickson.
She said Moses and Chaim awoke because they smelt smoke emanating from one of the bedrooms and they ran to Darren’s room as the fire began to spread in the house. “They alerted Darren who got up and proceeded to awaken the rest of the family; however the fire quickly razed the upstairs apartment,” said Dickson.
As Darren ordered the four children to run for their lives and escape via the front door he returned to his bedroom to rescue his common-law wife Vanessa. However the entire roof was completely engulfed with flames and collapsed before Darren could enter the room. “Darren was still able to run out of the front door after the roof caved but when he got outside none of the children had escaped,” said Dickson.
Darren hurriedly attempted to re-enter the house via the back step but the heat, smoke and raging fire forced him to abandon his rescue attempt.
Although fire officers of Chaguanas and Couva stations responded promptly to the blaze the upper storey was gutted when they arrived and the six died.
Upon hearing reports that Couva fire trucks had no water to put out the fire yesterday, as well as accounts that the Chaguanas fire station officers arrived first at the scene, United National Congress councillor for the Couva area, Allan Seepersad, lashed out at what he thought was the lack of disaster preparedness at the Couva Fire Station.
“You always have to be equipped, there is a lack of responsibility and service at the Couva Fire Station which could source water at the Savonetta Fire Station before coming to the scene. The supervision at Couva is very poor,” claimed Seepersad.
This is the second tragedy for the Dickson and Chinapoo families after the murder of grandfather, Fred Pooran, 73, a Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (TTEC) worker whose lifeless body was found with stab wounds in Maloney recently.
When contacted a fire officer said that the station got the trouble call at 12:15 am on Saturday morning, but he could not comment on the claims made by relatives as to the lack of water. Attempts to contact the Assistant Chief of Fire Services (South), Anthony Alexis, proved futile.
