FIREWORKS may have sparked a blaze that destroyed a small-appliance repair shop and another structure on Piccadilly Street, Port of Spain, on Friday night, cau­sing nearly half a million dollars in losses.Assistant Chief Fire Officer of the Northern Division Gary Sookdeo said the cause of the fire had not yet been determined, but allegations involving fireworks formed part of the Trinidad and Tobago Fire Service’s (TTFS) investigation.Sookdeo said the Wrightson Road Fire Sta­tion received several calls about a structure on fire on Piccadilly Street shortly before midnight. The Woodbrook Fire Station also responded and helped extinguish the blaze.Speaking with the Sunday Express by telephone yesterday, Sookdeo confirmed that two structures were totally destroyed. Both belonged to the same owner, he said.“One nearby house received some damage. One or two windows got some scorching. Also, the guttering,” Sookdeo said, describing the damage to the third structure as minimal.Asked whether the cause of the fire had been determined, Sookdeo said he could not comment at this stage. He said, however, that allegations that fireworks were responsible formed part of the TTFS’ investigation.When the Sunday Express visited the scene around 2 p.m. yesterday, teams of Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) contractors were present, replacing and securing the overhead power lines affected by the blaze.Carlton Balfour, one of the owners of the repair shop, also spoke with the Sunday Express, saying he was told the fire was started by children shooting Roman candles at each other.According to Balfour, his business partner escaped harm when one of the fireworks came through a window while he was sleeping.“He tell me he see when it came through the window. Fire. When he saw the fire start, he just run out the house,” Balfour said, stressing: “When I came out here now, I saw all the flame and thing.”According to Balfour, he wanted the Government to impose stricter measures against fireworks, saying it was not the first time they had destroyed homes in the East Port of Spain community.Balfour said at 62, he was not sure what to do to earn a living since he had been repairing appliances and other small machinery at the spot for more than 20 years.He said some of his friends had offered him a spot on their premises, where he could set up an establishment. He noted that while he was willing to take up the offer, he was reluctant at the same time.“He tell me he will put up a tent for me to fix back a little TV. There is another place I can see to open back a spot,” Balfour said, stressing that his establishment was a popular one where people from all over the country came to repair their small appliances.Asked if he was concerned that people might want to get back their merchandise or money for the items they lost, Balfour said he was not.According to him, one of his customers had already said that he understood the blaze was no fault of his or his business partner’s and instead joked, “he was glad we were alive”.‘Tougher laws needed’Meanwhile, when contacted by TV6 News yesterday, Minister in the Ministry of Housing Phillip Alexander said he believed fireworks may have sparked the Port of Spain blaze and called for tougher controls on their sale and use.According to him, he had received nume­rous calls about the incident yesterday.“I was in touch with residents in the community and there were children who were playing this fireworks game called Roman candle and the residents were complaining. One resident said it hit her window, another one hit her air condition unit, and it ended up starting a fire where the TV repair man occupies and it spread out of control from there.”Alexander said the incident highlighted what he considered gaps in the current regulation of fireworks.“We need tougher laws to govern who gets to operate fireworks when and where; that has always been important, the animals, innocent people who lose properties. Indis­criminate use of fireworks is a hazard to everybody. The Prime Minister is correct, we need to toughen our stance on these things,” Alexander said.“It’s a lot of corporate irresponsibility that drives a lot of this nonsense in Trinidad, we have to face it. We have to get in front of it and deal with it. Fireworks are not toys. Fireworks should not be indiscriminately used, and there should be a ban on the use of fireworks outside of specific windows of time by specific persons in specific places.“If people try to smuggle fireworks into the country after you do that, the jail consequen­ces should be long and serious and frightening to dissuade them,” he said.Alexander said the incident was one of the reasons Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had described the country as a “lawless dump”.“She didn’t mean we don’t have laws, but they aren’t enforced or aren’t strong enough,” he said.