-as decrepit building completely destroyed
SEVERAL families on High and Barrack Streets in Kingston were greeted with a fiery Easter as the decrepit building they were living in went up in flames around 14:00hrs. Consequently, about 25 families, numbering just under 100 persons, are now homeless, after a mid-afternoon fire ravaged an old two-storey apartment building, threatening the neighbouring Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Cuban Embassy buildings.
The fire which, residents said, started around 14:00hrs, in a room on the top floor of the building referred to as ‘The Ship’, spread fast, licking through the entire building and consuming everything in its path. It was a hair-raising scene as female occupants, most of whom are single parents struggling to eke out a living for themselves and families, wept openly.  Some fainted on seeing everything they possessed go up in flames, and at the thought of having nowhere to go after then.

Fortunately, there were no casualties, even though many of the occupants were children and young babies.   As word of the fire spread, there was pandemonium, and parents who had not yet taken their children kite-flying, ran helter-skelter in a desperate bid to snatch them out of harm’s way.

School-aged boys who lived in the building, claimed they were on the unenclosed ground floor chatting and did not have a clue what was going on above them until a female security guard working at a nearby Government building came running towards them, exclaiming that smoke was emanating from a room on the top floor.   They ran upstairs, but the room, already engulfed was heavily padlocked, forcing them to kick the door down.  The room was said to be occupied by a woman whose name was given as Toressa.  She was not at home at the time.

Disaster struck at a time when the majority of  tenants were not at home.  Some parents had gone kite-flying or were otherwise out in the parks and gardens with their children; others were at work and others still had gone to buy kites for their children. As word of the conflagration spread, tenants who were not at home, raced down to the scene where fire-fighters were in fierce combat with the angry flames licking away at the age-old building. 

Several fire tenders arrived on the scene and the firemen fought to put the fire out, as though their lives depended on it. They were commended by the public for the remarkable job they did at containing the flames to the one building, in an environment where the buildings are in very close proximity to each other. Through this means, a major catastrophe was averted and nearby buildings including the home of the owner of the ravaged building, Mr. Maurice Sukhoo, the IDB and Cuban Embassy were saved. Much of the damage suffered by Sukhoo, proprietor of the Starlite Drive-In and the nearby buildings was from water used to douse the flames.

Fire Chief, Mr. Marlon Gentle, said his department received a message which stated that  the top floor of the building was already engulfed, and so they came prepared for what confronted them.

The Fire Chief disclosed that the building, which was in a poor state had been put up for demolition several years ago.  He noted that about 28 buildings around the city have been put up for demolition, and it is for the City Council to carry out the exercise.  

Mayor Hamilton Green visited the scene soon after, and spoke with the affected residents.  Asked what help could they get, he advised them that the national Relief Council would visit them shortly.
Meanwhile, Sukhoo said he was on the East Coast with his wife and two children when he received the message about the disaster and hastened home.  He too, expressed concern over the fact that even though the building was up for demolition, that did not happen, and he had continued to seek the cooperation of the City Council.

Sukhoo, agreeing that there were many people living in the building, said that over 60 of them were squatting there and not paying a rent and were not his tenants.  He said that the presence of a lot of the persons there constituted a nuisance, but he was having trouble getting them out,  since they probably had nowhere to go.  He recalled that just about three weeks ago he again photographed the building and took a copy to Council, but nothing had since been done.

Sukhoo said he took possession of the building from its previous owner, Mr. Yogendra Persaud Sharma, now in Canada, just over a year ago, and has paid up all related expenses such as rates and taxes.

Among the persons left homeless by the fire are:  Dacia Amsterdam, her husband Steve la Rose and children, snack vendors, who were selling out on the seawall when they received the news. Lisa Joseph and family; Anthonette Mc Kenzie and family;  Gloria Nedd and children; Bonetha Wilson and children;  Coreen Joseph and children; Patricia Cornette and nine children and Adrian Amsterdam.

With nowhere to go and no solution immediately in mind, many of the now homeless families huddled together temporarily under trees in the compound of the Anglican Monastery, as they tried to avoid the intense heat of the sun.