By Robert Hart, Staff Reporter
A resident surveys the ruins of houses that burned to the ground on Saturday night. Thirteen families lived in the three houses, located in the Fletcher's Land area of upper Church Street, downtown Kingston. - Norman Grindley /Staff Photographer
THIRTEEN FAMILIES are now homeless after fire gutted three houses they occupied at 142-146 upper Church Street in downtown Kingston, shortly after 9 p.m. on Saturday.
In an accusation that has almost become routine, some fire victims said the fire (which caused losses of $1.5 million) could have been contained if the fire brigade had arrived 'on time'.
"Is bout half hour or more dem take fi come," a fire victim, a 31-year-old woman who lived with her boyfriend and 13-year-old son at one of the upper Church Street houses, said of the three fire-fighting trucks which turned up at the scene.
But a senior officer at the Jamaica Fire Brigade headquarters at York Park, Orange Street, rejected the claim. Two of three units which went to the scene were dispatched from that station; the other came from the Rollington Town station, east Kingston.
CRIME SCENE,
The officer, while stating that he did not go to the crime scene, said it would have taken the fire-trucks about two minutes to get to the scene of the blaze from the nearby station at Orange Street.
"How can it take half an hour to get to Church Street from here?", he asked.
While sympathising with the plight of the victims, the officer said that fire victims "often expect you to be Batman or Superman" in fighting fires. He said that at times, fire-fighters were given wrong addresses of fire scenes. This sometimes affected the length of time it took to arrive at the scene.
An officer from the Rollington Town Fire Brigade Station told The Gleaner that it would have taken them five minutes to get to the location of the fire. At the fire scene, a victim, Leman Simmonds, 44, said that another man went to the station in person to alert the firemen to the blaze.
Lorna Leslie, (JLP), KSAC Councillor for the area, is appealing to the public for assistance to provide building material for the fire victims. Her investigations determined that 13 families, including nine men, 11 women and 12 children, were affected. Nobody was injured.
"Their greatest problem right now is accommodation at Christmas," Miss Leslie told The Gleaner yesterday. She said that anyone who could help may do so by contacting her at the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation's offices, 24 Church Street.
The cause of the blaze has not yet been determined, but Mr. Simmonds said he was thankful that "me save me life, me granddaughter and me wife."
