Two homes destroyed in West Street blaze

Seventeen-year-old Norman Manley High School student Janeek Huie had completed her English and social studies school-based assessments (SBAs) just hours before her house caught fire on West Street, Kingston, yesterday.

The disaster started about 8:30 a.m. and, with it, transformed her feelings of accomplishment into fear and frustration as neighbours shouted for help. Inside her room, however, the choice was clear: retrieve her laptop and school supplies or save her four-year-old baby.

For the young mother, the decision was a no-brainer.

“They told me that fire was in the housetop and that was when I ran come around and grabbed my little baby and my brother,” said Huie, describing how the flames crackled above her head in the ceiling. “I just panicked and, by the time I reached outside, the entire house just blazed up.”

“I lost my laptop, my phone, and all of my baby’s clothes. She lost her uniform, her tablet, everything. I don’t even know how I am going to start over because it is next week Wednesday the teacher told me that the English SBA is due. I’m hoping I can talk to them,” she continued.

Firefighters from the York Park Station said no one was injured in the blaze which completely razed two homes in the gang-torn area of West Kingston.

Twenty people and their children were reportedly burned out but the first responders could not say the cause of or estimated damage caused by of the fire. Residents, however, blamed illegal electrical connections, which are rampant in the community.

As firefighters cooled down the smouldering wood and concrete structures, residents milled about saved furniture littering the roadway outside. Dressers without drawers, two old stoves, and a handful of clothes were among the salvaged items.

Yesterday, Justice of the Peace Claudine Cunningham and Joseph Witter, councillor for the area, walked among the fire victims, retrieving information on their predicaments.

Witter was fearful that, despite being alerted about the fire, political representatives, as he said they have done in the past, would ‘play politics’ in offering assistance to victims.

“These people need assistance immediately. The member of parliament has been notified, the only issue is that I wouldn’t like them to play politics,” he said.

“I don’t want them to just neglect these people. One nearby house burn down already and nothing happened because they were playing politics. So, with this one now, I just hope that will not be the case,” he charged.

Fifty-nine-year-old Adassa Vassell lost everything except for her 95-year-old mother Enid Powell, who was reportedly helped out of the burning building by residents. Yesterday, Powell thanked God to be alive while her daughter cried inconsolably for items she lost in the fire.

According to Vassell, she had been purchasing appliances to move into a house recently built in a rural community. She had just returned from a doctor’s appointment to see her house completely engulfed.

“Mi lose my microwave and a new fridge, a new machine, and mi bed weh mi buy the other day. I lose my dresser, wardrobe, and my two TV them,” she cried, her elderly mother offering comfort.

Nearby, another resident, Charmaine Muir, begged passersby for whatever they could give to help buy fabric to remake her granddaughter’s school uniform. Missing out on school was not an option for her, Muir said.