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We later confirmed this afternoon with station supervisor Kenneth Mortis that the blaze had started as a result of a makeshift stove being used in the lower flat of the home. According to Mortis, the fire could have been much worse than it was.
Kenneth Mortis, Fire Station Supervisor
"We learned that the building, the two story structure was occupied by two different families. Ms. Alicia Ramcharan, her husband and their two children, occupied the upper flat, while 69 year old Mr. Elidor Garcia was the occupant of the lower flat. We learned that the building had no legal connection in terms of electricity by BEL and the fire started in the lower flat where Mr. Garcia was occupying."
"What we what we came up with was Mr. Garcia was using a makeshift stove for whatever reason he needed to cook something. Unfortunately, that makeshift stove got toppled over. The fire started and in the state of mind that Mr. Garcia was in, he visited his nearby neighbor asking for water. But Mr. Garcia did not really specifically listed what was a purpose of him wanting water."
"And of course, as neighbors, you know, he is known in the community as a handyman, so to speak, and he just got the water and got the hose. And it wasn't until the daughter for the neighbor that he asked water from noticed that, hey, this gentleman's house is on fire. By then it was too late. It had already consumed the upper portion and had already spread to the lower portion."
"That cement structure. Even though that family suffered loss, that cement structure proved to be the barricade between the current building and neighboring structures after that cement structure. Had that fire jumped that building we would have still been out there looking at least 3 to 4 houses lost. Looking at the age of what these buildings pose the structure of them, it would have been a definite fiasco."
