WATCH: At Least Seven People Homeless After Soufriere Fire

At least seven people are homeless after a fire swept through a units at the beachfront near the Soufriere market, where some fishers either lived or stored their equipment, reports from the community say.

According to information, the blaze occurred early on Thursday morning.

Soufriere MP Emma Hippolyte, who visited the area on Friday, told St Lucia Times that the fire gutted seven units and five others sustained damage.

“Right now we have to put something together to assist those who have lost everything,” she explained.

Hippolyte thanked firefighters and others who assisted in combatting the blaze and said although individuals suffered material loss, she was thankful that there was no loss of life.

One of the fire victims told St Lucia Times that a man who appears to have a mental issue had vowed to set fire to the block.

“He always promise to do that, to set the place on fire. To me, the way he reacted I would not say he actually did it especially, but when you always preach something about doing something and it happen everybody will say that you know, you did it intentionally,” the fire victim expressed.

“When that thing happen he had a bicycle inside – the only thing he took and his phone and he never tried to call nobody for help. That’s why a lot of people are thinking he did it intentionally. Had he called and asked for help, they have people living there, all of us there, we would have had time before the fire had escalate,” he explained.

The fire victim said someone at the market saw the suspect fleeing the fire scene. He also said the suspect was in police custody.

“I wasn’t there during the night time but when I came in the morning I realise they had fire, so everything had time burn inside. That’s the place I used to live,” the fire victim lamented.