BY the time Fire Services arrived at the site of a blaze in Indian Walk, Princes Town, on Saturday night, 67-year-old Gopaul Ramnanan and the two-room structure in which he had spent the final years of his life had already been swallowed by the flames.

The elderly man, cared for by the son of one of his deceased friends at their Third Company home, was found lying on a metal bed frame, immobilised and burnt beyond recognition within the modest structure at the back of the property.

His skull was visible through the soot; the Express was told.