By John Myers Jr., Staff ReporterAT LEAST 11 persons were left homeless on Saturday when a massive fire razed a two-storey board house and a section of another house in the same yard on Lissant Street, downtown Kingston.
The thick, black smoke which engulfed the area, visible from a distance, caught the curiosity of residents and passers-by who congregated outside the premises located at 8-10 Lissant Road. This happened while the occupants of the tenement yard and some residents of the area ran about frantically trying to put out the blaze.
Clarence Stewart, one of the affected residents, said he had just sat down to watch a video after coming from work just after 5 p.m. when he was alerted that a fire was in the building.
"When I look upstairs on top of di building I si fire and I rush to help," Mr. Stewart said. He, like the other occupants of the building, said all his belongings, except the clothes he had, were destroyed in the fire.
The fire brigade was summoned and two units from the York Park Fire Station and one from the Rollington Town Fire Station, fought the blaze, preventing another two-storey building from being engulfed entirely by the flames. Preliminary investigations indicate that the fire was caused an electrical short circuit.
The member of parliament for Central Kingston, Victor Cummings, who went to the scene along with Councillor Desmond Bailey, said efforts will be made seek assistance from the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) and the Red Cross for the affected residents.
