KELLITS, Clarendon — Molannia Budram is wracked with guilt. A candle she lit is believed to be the cause of a fire that has left her children traumatised and her family homeless.

“This is really bad because my eight-year-old daughter says she is still afraid and she not coming back here until it ‘make up back’. When she going bathroom mi affi follow her because she say she dream say the house a burn down. My son who is five years old keeps asking for his tablet but it burn up in the fire. I promised to buy him back a tablet as soon as I get a money because there is nothing for him to do classes on now,” Budram told the Jamaica Observer.

Her life changed on November 11. She closed her corner shop and headed to her house only to find it in darkness. The entire community of Rowe Town in Kellits had been left without power, a day earlier, after a Jamaica Public Service (JPS) power line toppled onto the Kellits bridge. Budram lit a candle to get her family through their usual evening routine. After dinner she got into bed, she said, and she thinks she fell asleep almost immediately.

“It’s hard because there are people saying it’s my fault and I’m careless. But you never know when things are going to happen. If I would know that the house would burn down I wouldn’t light the candle because there was no current,” she said as she wiped away tears. “My cousin said when he throw the water the fire came back at him. And so he was saying that couldn’t be just the candle because when I woke up that entire side of building burned down already. It was three bedrooms, kitchen, living room, hall, bathroom and veranda.”

She still recalls the fear and confusion of the night her family lost their house. She awoke to what she thought were the sounds of a storm raging. Then she heard footsteps on the roof.

“I thought someone was trying to come in because I heard like someone was pulling out the windows. So mi wake up mi spouse and say, ‘Listen!’ Him jump up and run off and went towards the kids’ room then him sey to me, ‘Chin, fire! Fire! Fire! Di house a burn down!’ That time one side was already on fire,” said the visibly shaken woman.

She ran to her children’s room to find them sleeping peacefully under the covers. She took them to the veranda but, afraid of the darkness that enveloped them, they ran back to her when she went inside to try and save their belongings.

“The place was dark because we never have any current and dem fraid. Mi carry them back out and by time mi turn round mi feel dem a hold onto me. So mi carry them back out again and mi spouse came and took them out and put them down outside. Him sey, ‘Look, see the house on fire; don’t come back in.’ And him sit down and start cry,” Budram recalled.

She said she eventually managed to save the washing machine that was on the veranda, along with sheets and a few items of recently washed clothes that had not yet been put away. They lost everything else.

“The Christmas is already looking dull because now I lost my house and I was planning to paint it and buy some more things put in there. Now it’s going to take a lot of money to fix it up back because I was told it has to be decked and decking material is very expensive. I had a six-burner stove on credit from Courts that I’m still paying for and it burn up. So I will have to go by the office to see if they can stop the payment for a while,” she said.

The immediate needs, Budram added, are for bedding, furniture and clothes for her children. She said she has received some items from community members but they are still in need of help as she tries to get back on her feet. The family is currently staying with one of Budram’s friends.

“She is badly in need of help,” said Councillor Noel Nembhard who represents the Kellits Division. “I have already reported it to the Ministry of Labour, and to the disaster unit at the parish council and they are already trying to mobilise some resources to assist her. We are waiting on the fire and police reports before we can do anything further. I am asking if she could get a Food for the Poor house because she has her two young children and she needs help right away. I hope anybody who comes across this report will try and help her. I will continue to do what I can on the ground, with my Member of Parliament, to assist her in the short term.”

In the meantime, he has blasted the Jamaica Public Service, the light and power company. The utility company, he said, took far too long to repair the pole that had fallen on the Kellits bridge.

“It took them three days before they came and repair it. Three days! And we reported it to the JPS over and over,” he raged. “That could be one of the reasons why this house might have burnt down because the whole place was in dark for couple days. JPS is not the same anymore and everybody has been complaining. It looks like all they care about is just money, money. They don’t care about the customers anymore, so to me that could have contributed to this.”

For Budram, that is little consolation as she grapples with the knowledge that the candle she lit may have placed her loved ones in such a precarious position. The fire, she said, has placed a strain on her entire family.