A late-night fire that tore through two structures on Piccadilly Street in Port of Spain late Friday has left a long-running small appliance repair business in ruins, caused an estimated half-million dollars in total damage, and reignited urgent public and political debate over loose oversight of fireworks use in Trinidad and Tobago. While official investigators have not yet confirmed the source of the blaze, unconfirmed accounts linking fireworks to the ignition are at the center of the Trinidad and Tobago Fire Service (TTFS) ongoing probe, with multiple witnesses and community leaders pointing to unsupervised children playing with fireworks as the likely trigger.
Emergency response protocols activated quickly after the first reports of the fire came in: just before midnight, Wrightson Road Fire Station received multiple emergency calls from alert residents, with crews from the nearby Woodbrook Fire Station also dispatched to the scene to assist in containing the spread of the flames. By the time firefighters brought the blaze under control, the two affected structures—both owned by the same group that operated the repair shop—had been completely destroyed. A neighboring residential property only suffered minor damage, limited to heat-scorched windows and damaged guttering, according to Northern Division Assistant Chief Fire Officer Gary Sookdeo.
In an interview with the *Sunday Express*, Sookdeo declined to confirm the cause of the fire, noting that investigations were still in their early stages. He confirmed that claims fireworks were to blame are a core line of inquiry for the TTFS, however. When reporters arrived at the destroyed site around 2 p.m. the following day, contractors from the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) were already on-site working to replace and secure damaged overhead power lines that had been compromised by the intense heat of the fire.
Carlton Balfour, co-owner of the destroyed small-appliance repair shop, told reporters he had been told the fire started when children firing Roman candle fireworks at one another accidentally sent a projectile into the shop. Balfour shared that his business partner was inside the building asleep when the firework entered through an open window, and only narrowly escaped unharmed after spotting the fire immediately and fleeing the structure before the blaze spread. When Balfour arrived at the scene, he told reporters the entire space was already engulfed in flames.
At 62 years old, Balfour faces an uncertain future: he has operated his repair business out of the Piccadilly Street location for more than 20 years, building a customer base that drew clients from across the country seeking repairs for small appliances and machinery. While a number of friends have offered Balfour temporary space to restart his work—including one offer to set up a temporary tent for small repair jobs—Balfour says he is torn about how to move forward. Remarkably, he says he has not faced pressure from customers seeking compensation for the items they left at the shop for repair; one customer even joked that he was just grateful Balfour and his partner escaped alive. Despite the tragedy, Balfour joined local leaders in calling for immediate government action, noting this is not the first time fireworks have destroyed property in the East Port of Spain community.
The call for tighter regulation was echoed by Minister in the Ministry of Housing Phillip Alexander, who told TV6 News he is convinced fireworks sparked the devastating blaze, and is pushing for sweeping changes to current fireworks laws. Alexander said he received dozens of calls from concerned residents in the wake of the fire, who confirmed children had been playing the “Roman candle game” in the area before the blaze started. Multiple residents reported being hit by stray fireworks that damaged their homes, including one that struck a window and another that hit an air conditioning unit, before the projectile landed in the repair shop and ignited the out-of-control fire.
Alexander argued the incident exposes critical gaps in the country’s current fireworks regulatory framework, saying indiscriminate fireworks use poses a public hazard to people, animals, and private property alike. He backed calls from Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for a much tougher stance on unregulated fireworks, noting that corporate irresponsibility among fireworks vendors is a key driver of the ongoing problem.
“Fireworks are not toys,” Alexander said. He proposed a strict new regulatory framework that would limit fireworks use to specific pre-approved time periods, operated by permitted individuals in designated locations only. For those caught smuggling unregulated fireworks into the country, Alexander called for lengthy prison sentences to deter illegal trade, arguing that current penalties are not strict enough to dissuade smuggling operations. Alexander also contextualized Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar’s recent controversial description of the country as a “lawless dump,” saying the comment was not an attack on the country itself, but a reference to the fact that existing laws are either not enforced or not strong enough to prevent dangerous incidents like this Port of Spain blaze.