Fire leaves 20 children and their families homeless
SCORES of people, most of them children, are now homeless after fire yesterday raced through a tenement at Sterling Avenue in St Andrew, consuming the four wooden houses they called home.
The fire department estimated the damage at $2 million.
According to residents, the blaze started in one house shortly after noon, and quickly engulfed the other wooden structures.
More than 30 people – 20 of them children – spent most of last night trying to find temporary accommodation.
While a few people managed to salvage some of their possessions, others lost everything in the blaze.
Augustus White managed to save only a machete. The elderly man shook his head slowly as he stared at the remnants of his home. It is alleged that the fire started in White’s house.
“Me did a bawl out, fire!” White said, in a weak voice to a man who berated him for not seeking help earlier.
“If you did call we and no try out it yuself we coulda save more,” the man shouted.
Dawn Hall, a mother of four, wrapped her head and cried continuously as neighbours tried to comfort her. Apart from losing all her possessions, Hall was devastated to learn that the $20,000 that she had managed to salvage from the fire had gone missing. Some of her neighbours say it was stolen in the mad rush.
“Is people partner money she have, and some heartless people take it,” one woman remarked.
All of the houses inside the tenement where the four families lived were gutted and at least two houses in an adjoining yard were scorched before the blaze was brought under control.
Yesterday, the residents praised the 24 firefighters from the Half-Way-Tree and York Park fire stations who brought the fire under control.
District officer from the Half-Way-Tree Fire station, Basil Richards, said the fire department was still working to determine the cause of the fire.