(Trinidad Express) – Five-year-old Shrelon Callendar heroically saved his family from an inferno that engulfed their home in the early hours of Sunday morning, quickly alerting his father to the flames and smoke he saw spreading through the building.
“At about one o’ clock in the morning, he ran into my room yelling, ‘Daddy, daddy, look smoke and fire!’“ said Stevelon Callendar of Boissiere Lane, Belmont, Shrelon’s father.
Stevelon shared the home with his family and in-laws.
Shrelon’s warning helped his father quickly evacuate the ten other members of the family, including two babies—one of them just six days old—just in time.
“As soon as we got everybody out, the roof collapsed,” Callendar recalled.
The implosion helped contain the fire from spreading to neighbouring houses, as residents worked together to try to extinguish the blaze.
The fire, Stevelon said, was caused by faulty wiring and a power surge. This is the second fire in the area in less than a week caused by faulty wiring, he said.
“We couldn’t go back in and save anything. It’s a big loss,” said Callendar, as he surveyed the still-smouldering rubble.
Callendar recounted his losses, which included new beds, computers, cell phones, two stoves, two refrigerators, and personal effects like clothes and even family photographs.
The lodgings also included two small businesses. Callendar’s mother-in-law ran a small variety and food shop, and Callendar, who works at the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, was a part-time barber.
“It was how we survived, and now we have nothing,” he said.
