By ANDREA DOWNER, Staff ReporterAPPROXIMATELY 25 PERSONS are now homeless after a pre-dawn fire razed three structures consisting of about 16 bedrooms on Love Lane in downtown Kingston this morning. At least 12 children, two of whom are five months old, are among those that are now destitute as a result of the fire. The fire started at about 4:30 a.m.
No one was injured in the blaze, but an elderly blind man whose name was given as Winston Brown, who was trapped in the raging inferno for approximately 20 minutes, narrowly escaped death. Based on the reports of residents and firefighters, it was the quick thinking and heroic actions of a firefighter and two residents of Love Lane that might have saved his life. THE STAR was told that Brown, who was removed from a room that is located at the back of the premises, was taken to hospital for treatment. THE STAR was unable to ascertain his condition at press time but firefighters on the scene said he was only taken to hospital as a precautionary measure as he was only suffering from smoke inhalation.
Corporal Klive Ebanks, the firefighter who assisted in rescuing Brown, told THE STAR that he found him in a smoke-filled room in an almost unconscious state. Twenty-five year-old Renae Porter, whose home was also burnt to the ground, told THE STAR she awoke at about 4:30 a.m. and was in the process of feeding her five-month-old baby daughter when the lights flickered.
"Mi wake up an' a feed di baby, when mi see di light dem dim and come back up bright," the obviously shocked mother said as she clutched her baby and a sheet and towel, the only things she managed to save, to her chest.
"Den, di light go out, an lef' di whole place inna darkness, an' mi feel di whole place a tremble," she continued. She said she opened her door and saw the entire front section of the house under fire.
Because the entire front section of the compound was sheathed in flames, the residents had to climb a ladder, clamber to the roof of a building that is several feet high and then walk on the roof of several business places before being lowered onto King Street to safety. Others were hoisted over a wall onto a neighbouring housetop and lowered via a fireman's ladder into the yard next to where the fire raged. Stanford 'Blue' Williams was robbed of a pair of shoes he managed to salvage from his belongings. "Di one pair a Timberland whe mi trus' from mi work place last week Saturday and mask up yah so, di man dem tief it," he shouted, atop a building from where he had assisted persons to get to safety. "Bwoy mi caan believe say people so wicked."
When THE STAR news team arrived on the scene at about 5:30am, firemen from York Park Fire station were performing cooling down operation which continued until approximately 8am.
Assistant Superintendent John Morais of the York Park Fire Station told THE STAR two units, one from Trench Town and one from York Park fought the blaze.He said investigations are still continuing to determine the cause of the fire and the extent and cost of the damage.
