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With­in min­utes, a re­lax­ing af­ter­noon turned in­to chaos af­ter a fire rav­aged two homes in Tabaquite, dis­plac­ing five peo­ple, in­clud­ing a prison of­fi­cer and his teenage son.

Prison of­fi­cer Rishi Ram­lal was re­turn­ing home around 1.30 pm on Tues­day when he saw smoke com­ing from the up­per floor of his home at Em­manuel Junc­tion. He alert­ed his rel­a­tives and, with the as­sis­tance of neigh­bours, tried to pre­vent the flames from spread­ing to their homes. His two aunts and his 13-year-old autis­tic son were at home at the time.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed yes­ter­day, smoke was still em­a­nat­ing from the ru­ins. Ram­lal’s aunt, Si­ta Sam­my, who lived alone in a two-bed­room house, said she nev­er imag­ined she would lose her home, which be­longed to her par­ents. Ram­lal lived in an­oth­er house, mere feet away on the same com­pound, with his 76-year-old moth­er, 74-year-old aunt, and son.