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Sequoia St George and her three children, watch the burnt remains of their Pond Street, Point Fortin home on Thursday. Photo by Angelo Marcelle
A woman’s instinct to leave her home and go to the Point Fortin Police Station to report a man for allegedly threatening to burn down her house with her and children inside might have saved her life and the lives of her three young children, including an eight-month-old baby girl.
Sequoia St George, 30, was on her way to the station when the police called and told her that her home was on fire Wednesday at about 2 pm. The fire is believed to have been deliberately set.
The three-room wooden structure at Pond Street, Point Fortin, was burnt to the ground, and no one was able to salvage anything. Homeless are St George, her common-law husband Lyndon Wills, and their three children— the baby and two sons, five and three.
“(Name called) kept saying he would chop us up in the house then burn it with us inside. He said he saw when my mister (Wills) left and would come and kill us when he finished doing what he was doing. He said my mister would be holding his head bawling when he comes home,” she said.
“At first, I did not take him on because he always threatened people and got on violently. But then I heard his tone changed. I called the police and told them about the threats. I just could not take it any more, and my big son was frightened too. I said to myself, that it was better if I left. I took the children and left.”
She said she walked out the street with her children then got in a car.
On her way, she saw a marked police car with officers who were heading to meet her at home. She gave them her full address, and the man’s address. The officers, she said, told her they were going to speak to him.
Minutes later, the police called to tell her the house on fire. She changed direction and return home.
The house did not have electricity and the family had already brought materials to wire the house.
Seeing her home in flames, St George said she began to weep.
Sequoia St George
“My house was fully furnished. I had two beds, $4,000 under a mattress to pay the person to wire the house, we lost everything,” St George said.
Wednesday’s threat was the third in seven years. However, the man had also reported her to the police over the years for threatening him.
“This man keeps provoking people. He always walks around with a cutlass. I do not interfere with this man. I am always with my children. If he had attacked us yesterday, I would not have been able to defend myself and the children. I just want to live in peace,” St George told Newsday on Thursday.
“The police spoke to him and that was it,” she said.
Wills, who works as a welder and fabricator, lost his equipment in the blaze.
He said he recently paid off a loan to get a tv and washing machine to make his family comfortable.
Wills said, “I am not ashamed to ask for help. Right now, I cannot function. We lost everything.”
The suspect remained at large, up to Thursday afternoon.
Hours after the house was burnt down, another house, a stone’s throw away, was gutted.
The owner was not in the area when Newsday visited.
Residents declined to speak about the fire, saying he lived alone and did not know where he went.
Anyone willing to help the family can call Newsday at 607-4929.
Investigations are ongoing.
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