Seven people died in two house fires in Central Trinidad between Friday night and Saturday morning. Four of the dead are children.

At Mc Bean, Couva, just after midnight on Saturday, the roof of the burning home collapsed upon 13-year-old Sarah Chinapoo, 10-year-old Chayim Chinapoo, 8-year-old Moses Chinapoo, 2 1/2-year-old Elijah Narine, 22-year-old Shantelle Dixon and 32-year-old Vanessa Chinapoo. They had huddled in the bathroom of the house, hoping for protection from the flames, and waiting to be rescued.

They were all killed. The bodies were found in a death embrace. Chinapoo was pregnant. Her baby was due in three weeks’ time.

The only survivor of the horror was Chinapoo’s husband, Darren Dixon.

He was step-father to three of the dead children. Dixon said he tried  everything to save his family but failed. The burglar proofing that secured the front door and windows against thieves turned out to be a death trap for them, he said.

Two hours earlier at Pierre Road, Charlieville, 58-year-old Katwaroo Bahadur also burned to death when his small home went up in flames.

Bahadur’s neighbours tried dousing the flames before fire fighters arrived. They failed and his body fell through the burnt-out floor boards as the home he shared with his sister was destroyed.

The Mc Bean fire follows the tragedy of last year when a fire, the cause of which has never been determined, killed four members of the family of 10-year-old kidnap victim Vijay Persad, at Indian Walk Village, Moruga.