AN 11-year-old special-needs child is dead following injuries she sustained from a fire that engulfed two rooms at her Malabar home on the night of November 27.

The deceased has been identified as Anna Love-Taitt of Paul Castillo Place, Phase 4 Malabar, Arima.

Love-Taitt was said to be living with a close male relative and another man whose relationship to her is unknown.

Newsday visited the home on November 28 and spoke to few residents who wished to remain anonymous.

One resident said around 7.45 pm on November 27, he and another man were fixing a car on the road when a man walked up to them and asked them to assist him, as his house was on fire.

"He didn't want to go in alone because he said he did not want to look suspicious.

"We got inside the house and pass the living room and then saw smoke. There were two doors to the left side of the house and there was flames coming from them."

The resident said he came back outside to look for a hose to try to calm the flame.

When he saw there was none, he went home and got his own and connected it to a pipe at the house, but it did not have any water.

"When I went back into the house, the smoke had thicken and gotten worse. My wife then called the fire services."

The resident described the incident as a very grim situation.

He said while he did not know what Love-Taitt looked like, he knew of her presence at the house.

"Every morning she was singing and during school hours she was home.

"I know she's a special-needs child. I didn't know what she had."

[caption id="attachment_1123509" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The home at Paul Castillo Place, Phase 4 Malabar, Arima that caught fire on November 27. - Photo by Enrique Rupert[/caption]

The resident said he heard that Love-Taitt suffered third-degree burns and was taken to the Arima Health Facility.

Another resident also stopped and spoke to the media. She said Love-Taitt came to her daycare as a toddler.

"She came to me at the age of two and spent roughly a year-and-a-half. She was a special child, as she had autism."

The resident claimed that the close male relative is mentally-challenged and was not fit to take care of Love-Taitt.

She said around 2023 she called Children's Authority, but lacked crucial information to make a report.

"I called and the only thing I couldn't remember was her surname, so they said to 'forget the information.'

"Recently, I saw the close male relative acting erratically ... and I saying to myself, 'I wonder if he still have that child, I have to go to Children's Authority.'"

She said while she called, no formal report was made and due to the busy nature of life, she never got around to calling back.

Another nearby resident said Love-Taitt was always singing around the house and described the incident as really sad.

Fire Services said the cause of the fire was yet to be determined and investigations were ongoing.

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