OVER the past few months, 77-year-old Rookmin Pooran had had visions of fire around her home and was terrified by them, relatives said yesterday.
In fact, Pooran was so afraid of the prospect of dying by fire that last Thursday, she begged to be moved to a downstairs bedroom, her caregiver, Grace Marksman, 51, said yesterday. It was the last conversation the two women had together.
Pooran, who has been confined to a wheelchair for the last four years because of chronic arthritis, died in a fire at her Boundary Road, San Juan home yesterday.
"She (Pooran) saw fire all over. Like she was seeing what was looming. And the last time I saw her she begged me to take her downstairs," Marksman said.
Marksman has worked for the Pooran family for the past 15 years. Pooran was found on the ground near her bathroom, with her wheelchair still close to her bed, her daughter-in-law Indira Pooran, 40, said.
However, Pooran's son, police constable Roopchan, 52, said if the fire officers who responded to the blaze acted "like professionals", both his mother and the family's home would have been saved. But thankfully, Roopchan said, his teenaged nephew, Stephen, acted and saved the lives of eight other occupants of the two destroyed houses.
It all began around 4.15 a.m. yesterday, when Stephen, 18, heard "an explosion" and saw a blaze in the balcony of his family's home.
One of those Stephen was able to awake was his uncle, Roopchan, who also tried to open the door but sustained burn injuries to his right palm, left arm in the process. His hair was also burnt.
"The fire brigade is our hope. I watch what my father sweat for just disintegrate. The fire station that is two minutes away take 35 minutes to reach and then take another 10 minutes to start operating," he said.
Fire trucks from both the San Juan and Santa Cruz Stations responded, but ran out of water, and eventually a water tank and ambulance from the Wrightson Road head office arrived two hours late, Roopchan said.
Ten people who lived in the two houses owned by the Poorans and a downstairs bar, aptly named Pooran's Bar, were all destroyed.
None of the buildings were insured and damage was estimated at $3 million. Investigations are continuing.
