Evening Fire Guts City Homes

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Six people have been left homeless after a fire in San Domingo Alley, King William Street, The City, destroyed one house and extensively damaged three others.

Eyewitnesses reported that the fire started in an abandoned house, which itself was razed.

Around 5:30 p.m., three tenders, along with 15 firefighters, arrived at the scene to extinguish the fire. Velda Holder, 76, who occupied one of the houses with her son Emerson Holder, said that she "didn't know what was going on".

She explained: 'I was at the front door sitting down and them [residents] come and tell me 'Come, Ma; come out, Ma, fire behind you' and then them come and lift me out."

Another of the affected residents, Leroy Spooner, who shared his home with Sandra Osbourne, recalled that he "was inside drinking some tea". "Then somebody say, 'Fire outside'. When I look through the window now, it was more than a fire, man. People lift me out and put me to sit down," said Spooner, the father of Member of Parliament for the City, Patrick Todd.

Fifty-two-year-old Arthanel Roberts and Fay Joseph occupied the other house that suffered damage.

Acting Station Officer Neal Smithwick said that upon arriving on the scene, his team was able to bring the fire under control in a timely manner, thereby reducing the possibility of damage to other houses in the area.

"Our major concern would be the close proximity of the houses within this area and trying to maintain that fire within the initial area without it spreading to existing properties, and this we have been able to do to a very great extent, " he said.

Todd arrived on the scene around 6:45, thanked the residents who assisted those displaced persons for displaying a "real good example of community spirit".

"People sometimes like to give the residents in working-class areas such as this a bad name. But I can speak from experience, since my father and his relatives live in this area, that these Barbadians citizens who wish for an equal opportunity to play their part in national development," he said.

Source: Nation News

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