Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

Carlene Lewis, with three of her five children, sits on the steps of her one-room home in Old Harbour Bay, St. Catherine, on Monday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Almost one year after three Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) workers died in an accident at the company's Old Harbour Plant, family members of the deceased are yet to hear the findings of an investigation carried out by the Government.

Derrick Kellier, Minister of Labour and Social Security, had told Parliament's Standing Finance Committee in April, that he had received the findings of the report and would be submitting the document to Cabinet before deciding on the way forward.

But while the process drags on, five of the children of Owen Townsend, one of the dead workers, are suffering, as their mother, Carlene Lewis struggles to support them.

"This yah back-to-school, me don't even know how me a go manage to send dem go to school. As me tell you, a fish me scrape and now weather deh a sea, no fish hardly a catch, none hardly a sell," she lamented, shaking her head as she spoke to The Gleaner from her one-room home in Panton Town, Old Harbour Bay, St. Catherine.

Sole breadwinner for five kids

Ms. Lewis has now become the sole breadwinner for her five children aged six to 16 years.

"Right now, me need some help from anybody at all," she said.

Last September, Townsend, 41, Woodford Brown, 34, and Arthur Williams, 60, who were stationed at the JPS's Old Harbour power plant in St. Catherine, died after inhaling hazardous gas while carrying out duties at the facility. Two other employees were also treated at hospital.

According to Ms. Lewis, Mr. Townsend's untimely death was not only a financial handicap, but has been an emotional strain on the children. She said Mr. Townsend's third son particularly misses his father.

Up to yesterday morning, while carrying her smallest child on her back, he said to her: "Mommy, yuh know before daddy dead a suh him use to give me jockey ride. Yeah, him miss him fadda a lot, " she said sadly.

Mr. Townsend's only daughter, 10-year-old Neleesha, is also missing her father. She said she had warned her father that day not to go to work.

"Mi tell him, 'Daddy, don't go, carry we a sea because something bad might happen, " she said as she wiped away the tears.

Meanwhile, the family is contemplating taking legal action to claim some compensation.