Abandoned Laventille church collapsesSusan Mohammed May 4, 2021 Updated 10 min ago
The St Thomas Spiritual Baptist Church collapsed on Tuesday. It was earmarked for demolition
AN abandoned church at Laventille collapsed on Tuesday after several hours of heavy rain showers.
The St Thomas Spiritual Baptist Church, also known as ‘Taffy’s Church’, at Laventille Road, gave way around 8 a.m.
No one was injured, and but there was ‘light’ damage to a building next door to the old church, said deputy Mayor of Port-of-Spain and local government councillor Hillan Morean who was at the site with workers and equipment from the Port-of-Spain City Corporation.
Morean told Express that that the church was earmarked for demolition in 2017, when the National Clean-up Campaign was then launched by Minister of Local Government Kazim Hosein.
The councillor said that the owners of the church had financial difficulties for the demolition exercise, and the corporation got commitment from the Laing group of companies to assist in the safe demolition, but the exercise was not completed.
Morean said, “The church that was abandoned for decades, so it’s been a while that we have been trying to get this down, but it’s down now. Apart from some light damage to a property next door, there were no other damages.
No one was injured.
When the Express spoke to Morean around 10.30 a.m. he said as the rubble was being cleared at Laventille Road, the road before Desperlie Crescent was blocked to accommodate the equipment involved in the clean-up exercise but would be reopened within the hour.
He said he had contacted the Laing company to engage their assistance to clear the rest of the rubble.
“The church was abandoned and we were trying to get it down because it was a hazard. Thank God it did not fall in such a manner to cause injury to anyone and their lives.
It’s been raining heavily since early this morning and raining right now. Right now, I am soaked. I am sure this rain here is the straw that broke the camel’s back. There was always a concern that it would come down and that’s why we were trying to help the church out. I guess the weather had its own plans”, he said.
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