A day after she lost a child, tragedy struck again for an Enterprise mother of five when a fire gutted her home on Friday.
Poonam ‘Nicole’ Jerry, who was renting the house at Young Hero Street, was left with only the clothes she was wearing at the time after the fire consumed the house before she could save anything.
On Friday, at about 8 pm, Jerry was at a neighbour when she saw her house on fire. Although she wanted to save some of her belongings, Jerry said it was impossible for her to gather anything from inside the building owing to the intense heat and falling rafters.
Jerry said she had no idea what may have started the fire. There was no electricity supply to the house.
The fire service responded to a report but two fire trucks only arrived after the building was destroyed, this newspaper was told.
Just over a week before, on July 16, Jerry had managed to extinguish another fire at the house. Jerry recalled seeing smoke billowing from a back window of the house as she stood in a neighbour’s yard when the first fire occurred. This prompted her to rush inside the house, where she found the top of a cupboard burning and the flames spreading to a window.
Jerry said that she drenched the area and she was confident the fire was extinguished. She later ventured outside and about 15 minutes later she once more saw flames inside the house.
She raised an alarm and neighbours and relatives rushed to the scene and began dousing the flames with buckets of water. They managed to put out the fire before any major damage. She was not so fortunate on Friday.
Adding to her distress was the fact that Jerry had lost a baby one day before the fire, when she delivered prematurely.
She said last month, two armed men wearing masks had robbed and assaulted her at the house. At the time she was five months pregnant. As a result of the kicks to her stomach during the ordeal, Jerry said, she was in constant pain and frequented the hospital as a result.
The mother believed that the blows she sustained were responsible for her delivering a premature baby, who did not live.
Jerry said she reported the attack to the Vigilance Police Station but no one was arrested in connection to the matter.
She is currently staying at a sister with two of her children. Her other children are with a grandmother.
Devastated about the recent misfortunes that have befallen her, Jerry said she is confused and she is contemplating what her next move will be.
Jerry said she used to buy greens and provisions from the Mon Repos Market and she would resell them in front of the house she was renting.
The owner of the house, Lakeram (only name), was also at a loss over the destruction, particularly since the house did not have electricity.
He is now awaiting the investigations by the police and the fire service.
Lakeram said he met Jerry about five months ago, when she started renting the house from him. He added that he is thinking about rebuilding the fence but he does not have the money to build a new house.
