RESIDENTS of 64 Wildman Street in central Kingston are seeking the public’s assistance to rebuild their houses which were destroyed by a June 25 fire that displaced close to 10 people — all relatives.

Those displaced include a nine-month-old baby.

While the residents are grateful there was no loss of life and no one was injured during the tragedy, the Jamaica Observer was told that they have had to live through one of the most uncomfortable periods of their lives.

One of the residents, Shantel Campbell, told the Observer that when her boss learnt of her predicament, she was given time off to go home but explained that she chose to remain at work.

“I am stressed out. Even when they sent me home from work, I didn’t leave because there was no home to go to. We are currently working on getting materials to sort out the place. We are not looking for money. We just need help with building back the place. The others who live in the yard have suggested that we deck the roofs,” Campbell said, pointing out that life has changed negatively for her and the others just in the space of one week.

She said last week Thursday started as a normal day when she would go to work and her mother would go to the market in downtown Kingston to sell.

“At about 8:30 am I got a call that the place was on fire. [When I got there] I realised that the entire middle part of the property was engulfed in flames and that was where the fire may have started. The only things I saved were necessary documents like ID, Tax Registration Number and National Insurance Scheme cards and my birth certificate. I lost everything else besides sheets, some curtains and jeans pants. The pants were under the bed and the bottom of the bed didn’t catch fire but the mattress and everything else did.

“I left the scene and went back to work.”

Campbell said that her house consisted of one bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom. She said the other houses on the premises belonged to her mother, her sister, uncle and two aunts. She said that an upstairs section of one of the structures on the premises, which belongs to her brother Andre Beckford, was the only part that was spared from devastation.

“My brother lives on the one section that wasn’t damaged. He lives at the upstairs part. My mother, sister, aunt, uncle and cousin lost everything. They saved nothing at all except for necessary documents that people would carry in wallets or purse. Only one child lives in the yard currently. The child is nine months and a couple weeks. He will be one-year-old in October. That’s my brother’s baby. He had new dresser, a play pen and some additional stuff. Those are all gone. In total, it is about 10 people who live in the yard.

“I have been staying next door at my friend’s house. My mommy is currently living in the burnt out building because we washed down the place and put a tarpaulin overhead. My uncle is also living within the burnt space. Each person washed the walls and the floors and we got rid of most of the dump and rubble so far. We got assistance with a truck so we could move away most of the burnt stuff,” said Campbell.

When the fire started, Beckford, Campbell’s brother, was at home watching television with his spouse when he raised an alarm about smoke. His spouse looked through a window and saw something coming from the ceiling of his sister Tanya’s house. He went to check and Tanya’s “room was full of smoke”.

Said Beckford: “I went to the door to see if I could identify where the fire started but when I pulled the door, I couldn’t see anything at all because of the smoke. I called my mother’s husband and told him to leave because fire was in the place. I ran to beat down a door to alert my uncle then I ran back to my spouse, gave her our baby and told her to leave. I then grabbed what I could and went through the door and called the fire brigade.”

Beckford told the Observer that he would love if someone could donate some steel and other construction material to help his relatives get back on their feet.

“Since we are going to rebuild, I think we should just rebuild properly and done. The key thing is that no life was lost, and I am grateful for that. We just have to start over,” he said.

Rubble being removed from a sidewalk and being placed into a truck as part of clean-up operations at 64 Wildman Street in central Kingston, following a fire.

A firefighter assesses the damage to a house at 64 Wildman Street in central Kingston.