A family of four people are homeless after a fire completely destroyed their eight-bedroom concrete and corrugated iron home in Banaras, Lautoka last Saturday.

The fire was irrepressible as it also partially destroyed the family’s twin cab as well as damaged two neighbouring houses.

Mother and son managed to escape to safety when they saw the fire develop.

House owner Ajay Singh was still coming to terms with the situation. It has been their home since the birth of his two teenage children. Mr Singh was at work in Nadi when the incident happened and his wife had relayed the information to him.

“I immediately left work to come here and I was shocked to see the house on fire. We were not able to save our vehicle as it was partially destroyed by fire,” he said.

“I hope we could have saved some of our belongings and the fire would not have spread to the other houses beside us,” he said.

“Right now I don’t know what to do, because we were preparing for my youngest son’s operation in New Zealand.

All his documents were destroyed.

“I’m thankful that nobody was hurt or died in the fire. Lucky, my wife and son ran out of the house when they saw smoke filling the whole house.”

Mr Singh works at Roada Investment in Nadi while Mrs Singh stays at home with their two children.

Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro said the fire happened around 8:15am and the cause of the fire as well as the estimated cost of damage for the three houses was yet to be determined.

The NFA said that the water pressure was low and personnel had to wait for the Water Authority to pump water into the tank.

Despite the low pressure they were able to extinguish the fire.

Edited by Percy Kean

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