The building which housed Wint's Wholesale and other businesses that was destroyed by fire in Spaldings, Clarendon, on Saturday night. - George Henry

Ten persons, who lived in an 11-apartment house, and four business operators who occupied a building in Spaldings, Clarendon, are now picking up the pieces after two separate fires on Saturday.

The fires occurred only five hours apart and destroyed the house, which is owned by an 82-year-old woman and a building housing several businesses belonging to a well-known Spaldings senior citizen.

Mrs Theresa McDonald, who owns the house, told THE STAR that she was at her home about 4:30 p.m. making a cup of tea, when a grandson told her there was fire inside a back room of the building. She said she immediately rushed to that section of the house.

When she got there, McDonald said she saw smoke coming from the roof. She said she immediately ran back to the kitchen where she had a small cooking gas cylinder, grabbed it and threw it outside to prevent an explosion.

McDonald said she did not know who called the Christiana Fire Station. Although the fire unit arrived quickly and firefighters were able to put out the blaze, nothing was saved. The elderly woman told THE STAR that the house and contents which had an estimated value of over $3 million were not insured.

Checks with the Spaldings police yesterday to ascertain what could have been the possible cause of the fire did not reveal much, as Corporal Leroy Thompson said he and a team of investigators were still trying to fine the real cause.

In the second fire, which took place just over 200 metres away in Spaldings Square, owner of the more than 70-year-old building, Brisell Shaw, said about 10 p.m., he saw smoke coming from a section of the building downstairs and rushed out-taking his elderly wife with him.

Shaw said when he got downstairs, the fire suddenly spread, engulfing a number of sections occupied by different business operators, before the ceiling, which is also the floor for the section he occupied, caved in after being badly burnt.

The senior citizen said he was unable to save anything, and that all he owned in his house went up in smoke. Asked if the building was insured, he said it had not been insured this year.

"It should have been insured, but not yet for this year. I don't even know how much the building values," said a distressed Shaw.

Neville Stanley, who ran a tailoring establishment on the building for more than 25 years, told THE STAR that he, too, lost everything. He said when he heard of the blaze and went to the scene everything he had in his section of the building was already destroyed and he lost over $200,000 in equipment and material.

Davane Ffrench, who operated Expressions Beauty Supplies, said he lost more than $1 million worth of goods. He said he lost everything in his six-week-old shop by the time he got the call that the building was burning.