(Trinidad Express) The man accused of setting fire to a Laventille apartment complex,
which claimed the lives of three children, a woman and an unborn baby girl, was
last night charged with four offences of murder and causing grievous bodily
harm to eight other people.
Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, after reviewing the police file in the
matter, gave the instructions for the charges to be laid against the suspect
yesterday.
The suspect, a 39-year-old man who recently came out of prison, allegedly set fire to the door
leading to an apartment on the fifth floor of Building 2, a Housing Development
Corporation (HDC) apartment complex in Trou Macaque, shortly after midnight on
Tuesday after an argument over the occupation of the apartment.
Police said the suspect doused the entrance to one apartment with a bucket of gasolene and lit
it afire.
The fire quickly spread to the other apartment across the hall, trapping 12 occupants in both
apartments.
Soon, the entire fifth floor was up in flames, sending the 20 families, comprising more than 50
people living in the Building 2 apart- ment complex, into a panic.
The complex, which was constructed more than 50 years ago, had wooden floors and doors, and
did not have a fire escape.
The only way out for those trapped would have been through the fire or through the windows.
Those who survived the fire jumped or climbed down from the windows of the burning
building, using bedsheets as ropes.
Fire substation officer Tyrone Best was injured when a man and a woman who jumped from the
burning building landed on him.
Best, who has been described as a hero by Laventille residents, was preparing to catch a
child when the adults, surrounded by fire, jumped from the building.
Residents tried to cushion the fall of their neighbours by placing mattresses and other items,
but for Lisa Charles, 46, and 15-year-old Akeem Young, help came too late as
they hit concrete when they fell.
Two other children, two-year-old Deniecia Campbell and her ten-month-old niece, Destiny Lara, did
not make it out of the burning apartment.
Police said the suspect, who became angry because he was not allowed to reside with his
relatives in an apartment handed down by another relative, claimed he was fed
up, frustrated and tired of living like a homeless person.
Investigators said after an argument, the suspect left and returned with a container of
gasoline and started the fire before running away. The occupants of the
apartments were asleep.
He was arrested after police intercepted a maxi-taxi heading east at Curepe Junction on
Wednesday morning.
Another suspect who was arrested shortly after the offence has been released.
The eight people who were injured when they tried to escape the flames are Felicia Young, 21;
Delicia Young, 18; Khadeem Johnson, 11; Ashton Young, 16; Beverly Julien-Young,
54; brothers Curtis Hyde, 34, and Nigel Hyde, 32; and nine-year-old Josiah
Charles.
Delicia Young lost her unborn daughter and two-year-old daughter, her niece and her brother
in the fire.
Several of those injured remained in hospital last night.
Politicians on both sides of the divide responded to the plea for help by the Laventille
residents.