– family of 7 homeless, seeks public assistance to rebuild
A Wisroc, Linden family is now trying to put the pieces of their lives back together, after their home was completely ravaged by a fire of unknown origin on Thursday afternoon.
The Phase 1B Wisroc home and grocery shop belonging to Dionne Hope and her husband went up in flames shortly before 13:00h on the day in question.
The family of seven was unable to salvage any items from the home or the shop which was housed in the bottom flat of the building.
At the time of the fire, the proprietress was at home along with three children while the other two were at her husband’s relatives visiting overseas guests.
In relating the events leading up to the fire, the woman explained that after packing some items into her shop, she ventured to the backyard to feed her livestock.
She recalled that she was being assisted by her 2-year-old son to feed the pigs when she realised that something was amiss.
“I cannot say exactly what would have transpired inside of the house because I was in the back of the yard looking after my pigs…During the process of washing the pen, I noticed smoke. So, I said in me mind, ‘who was the person that, you know, light fire with a tire?’. Because it [the smoke] was really black. I wasn’t even expecting to actually look at my house and realise that well it was there it was coming from, because I wasn’t cooking. So I just decided to just turn to see exactly where it was coming from. When I turned around, I see my roof in flames and the smoke was coming through the back-bedroom window”, the distraught woman explained.
Without hesitation, she dropped the water hose and ran to the side of the house and raised an alarm.
“My husband’s old cousins were upstairs. The lady was, I think sleeping and the man was on the veranda looking out towards the road. So I ran to the side of the house shouting for ‘fire!’. Then is when they actually realised that there was fire in the home then they came downstairs”, the woman went on to state.
She further related that she then assisted the elderly woman, who is partially immobile in getting downstairs and away from the flames. She, nevertheless, managed to remove her motorcar but after doing so, the entire house had gone up in flames.
The woman noted that she and her husband had only celebrated their wedding anniversary on January 1. The family is currently staying at a friend’s house at Kara Kara, Linden.
Meanwhile, persons in the community are organising a relief effort in order to assist the family. The family is also appealing to the various agencies and organisations to assist in whatever way possible so that they can begin to rebuild their lives from the tragedy.
“We need every help because we lost everything”, Hope posited. Persons desirous of making monetary donations can do so through Republic Bank account number 5293311 or the family can be reached via telephone number 602-5648. (Utamu Belle)
