Ebony Park HEART Academy counts losses from cane farm fire

Cecelia Campbell-Livingston, Gleaner Writer

The Ebony Park HEART Academy in Toll Gate, Clarendon is counting the losses from a fire yesterday which destroyed about 12 acres of its cane lands.

Training base enterprise manager at the institution, Thelma Khani, told The Gleaner that the cane farm had recently been fertilized and had new growth that reached about two feet tall when the fire hit about 3:30 p.m.

“Apparently the fire started from the property adjacent to us and the breeze transferred it from their field to ours,” she said.

Khani said while it was not the first time fire had affected them, this time it was really hard because there is nothing to be harvested from the crop, resulting in significant losses.

“Because of all the agro techniques practices that we have done, we would have lost a lot of money, because we have already fertilised and fertilisation is one of the overhead costs, something that most of us are running from,” she said.

The HEART Academy was not the only place affected by the uncontrolled fire as residents from nearby Decoy district said they had to flee their houses as the thick smoke threatened their health.

Lorna Gooden said the smoke from the fire caused her 14-year-old son to throw up and his eyes got red.

The origin of the fire is still not known.