A wooden addition to a concrete house went up in flames a little after one o'clock this morning. When fire fighters arrived on the scene at number 4504 Consuelo Street, the 15 by 10 wooden addition had already been partially destroyed by fire.
The occupants of the house strongly believe that it is a case of arson - since only a week ago a letter was found on their front step - threatening to set their house on fire. Shirley Trapp, her 3 children and her boyfriend were inside the house when the fire started.
Trapp told 7news that she was awakened by the smell of smoke and by the time she jumped out of bed, the front of her house was already engulfed in flames.
Shirley Trapp
"I was in my bedroom sleeping and something just let me wake up and when I woke up I just saw a huge ball of flame, all the way up there as high as that tree. I don't know, I just woke up the children hurriedly and when I got out side, I froze I didn't know what to do. My gentleman tried to pull out some of the things, but everything was already under flames."
Monica Bodden
"The fire started from where?"
Shirley Trapp
"From this unoccupied back room, there was nothing really in there, only two mattresses, so we don't know what really caused it."
Marion Ali, Love News
"Is the area electrified, do you store candles, match's lighters, that kind of thing?"
Shirley Trapp
"No we don't store that because we have light. So it's not something that we have to store or use candles. There is no candle or anything like that, we have light and everything was working well. The fireman didn't find any problems, so up to now we don't know the cause it yet."
Monica Bodden
"Do you have any kind of suspicion?"
Shirley Trapp
"I was saying that maybe someone burnt it down or throw gas and light it fire."
Marion Ali, Love News
"Why would you say that?"
Shirley Trapp
"Because they showed the threats already, they said they will because I have a letter, the letter was on my step and when I was cleaning the yard I found the letter."
Marion Ali, Love News
"Saying what?"
Shirley Trapp
"That they will burn down the house and you are a (......) and all kind of things in the letter and your daughter is a (........) I don't know who it is, it's only children so I don't know who it is, some adult most is behind it all."
Marion Ali, Love News
"But the fire department found nothing."
Shirley Trapp
"They didn't find anything; they said that they don't know what caused the fire. "
Marion Ali, Love News
"Did you personally lose anything?"
Shirley Trapp
"Not really just water damaged, everything is all wet. No one saw, as you can see everyone is at home."
Sgt. Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer
"Early this morning police responded to a fire scene sometime around after two minutes to three this morning, Enrique Conarquie and Shirley Trapp made a report saying that they went to sleep and they were awaken by the smell of smoke. When they got up they saw a wooden portion of their house completely engulf in flames."
"They are saying that they received threats sometime, I am sure if it's last month or, and they took it for granted. And to their surprised this morning their house was set on fire. So we are treating that case as arson."
Marion Ali, Love News
"Now the note that showed us is the letter of threat, suppose it came from a group of children in the neighborhood and because of some conflict with her daughter."
Sgt. Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer
"Well Marion, the investigators have to go and interview these children and they will of course will interview her daughter, because obviously if she had a rivalry with other kids or other children in that neighborhood, she would know she had that rivalry with, so at the end of that investigation, we would try our best and rely on the fire department to establish to us whether it's an arson or if it was set, if the fire was caused maybe by electrical or anything that differ. We just have to rely on the fire department; we usually work close with them when we suspect that it's a case of arson. At the same time we will interview these children because she of cause can identify the persons that have made this threat."
If anyone would like to assist Trapp and her family, they can be reached at telephone number 621-9646.
