Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter

WESTERN BUREAU:

A Trelawny family is now in mourning, following the death of a two-year-old child, Rickaylia Nelson, who perished in a fire, which gutted her Newton Street home on New Year's Day.

Reports are that Rickaylia's mother, 20-year-old Myrtle Reynolds, an employee of FDR Pebbles Resort, in Trelawny, left the infant and her four-year-old sibling, Devonasha Clarke, in the care of her aunt, 17-year-old Crystal Reynolds, before leaving for work about 1:40 p.m.

Left for shop

It is further alleged that Crystal then left the two children with another aunt, 11-year-old Chantelle Reynolds, in order to visit a hairdresser down the road.

Sometime afterwards, Chantelle was then summoned by a neighbour to go to the shop, leaving the two-year-old in the house and the four-year-old outside playing.

According to eyewitness reports, the whole scenario took place within a 25-30-minute window of the mother's departure.

The two-bedroom wooden structure was gutted in no time and the smoke, they say, was unbearable. Up to last night, the origin of the fire was yet to be determined.