An investigation is underway into an early morning fire that damaged the Old Road constituency office of Steve Wrensford, Opposition St. Kitts and Nevis Labour Party for Constituency 4.
According to Fire Chief Everette Ogarro, the Sandy Point branch of Fire and Rescue received the report for a house fire around 4:15 am and arrived on the scene to find the front section of a building on the main road fully engulfed in flames. It took the responding officers about half an hour to oust the fire.
He sad swift action by Fire and Rescue likely prevented major damage to the rest of the structure.
The damaged portion of the building housed Wrensford’s constituency office and all the furniture and other items were completely destroyed.
The Fire Chief told Freedom FM, “Luckily no injuries were reported. We’re presently investigating and trying to determine the cause of the fire.”
Mr. Wrensford told Freedom however, he suspects the fire was intentionally set out of political malice.
“I don’t want to preempt the Fire Department or relevant authorities doing the investigation, but from my vantage point it seems to me there was a deliberate attempt to burn the building. Where the fire was started, it had to b deliberate.
“This is clearly an act of political malice. The building doesn’t belong to the SKN Labour Party, it is owned by a regular citizen using that as an opportunity to make an income, to burn something someone has worked hard for because of politics that’s malice, and it’s also evil.”
Wrensford says he will not be deterred and once the police are finished with their investigation he will attempt to have the building cleaned and continue to meet with constituents in the back office. He noted that the roof and doors of the front office had been extensively damaged. He cautioned supporters of all political parties not to resort to acts of political tribalism as the race to the next election heats up.