MONTEGO BAY — Twenty-four children were among 50 persons who lost their homes in Montego Bay and nearby communities between Friday and Monday after five fires, estimated to have left $11 million in damage, levelled five homes, damaged another house and a car rental agency.

Three of the houses were razed at 19 Creek Street in Montego Bay at about 7:25 pm Sunday, leaving 13 children and 16 adults homeless.

Yesterday a group of women and children sat beneath a large tree in the yard, a few feet away from one of the burnt-out houses. They were eagerly awaiting word from a group of neighbours who had gone to the St James Parish Council to seek help from the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management.

“Everything burn out and we nuh know what we next move, we nuh know what we fi do,” said one woman who gave her name as Mona.

The homes that were destroyed belonged to 60 year-old Beverly Salmon. According to Salmon, she has watched her tenants grow up, become parents and grandparents in the area that they call Long Acres. She was still reeling from the effects of the fire and could not even begin to think about whether she would rebuild.

And while Salmon maintained that their calls to 110, and not 119, had contributed to the delayed reaction by the fire department, those burnt out were angry and bitter.

According to one woman called Kerry Ann, she had to run about half a mile from her burning home to the Barnett Street fire station. When she got there, she said, the firemen were just getting dressed, and they were further delayed because they had to lift an unoccupied car, which was blocking their exit, out of the way.

The residents also complained that the first fire unit that responded had no water and it was carelessly parked to block the path of the second truck that came to assist.

But according to Deputy Superintendent Homer Morris, he knew of no problem with a blocked exit at the firehouse and his unit would never have left the station without water.

“What they don’t understand is that our first response units only carry 2,000 gallons of water, they each have the capacity of pumping 800 gallons per minute. So within less than a minute it can pump out, depending on the demands of the fire. But in no time at all we would send our nursery unit, that is the water tender which carries about 5,000 litres of water, to assist if there is no hydrant,” he said.

He maintained that the second unit’s path had been blocked by a shop that has been built in the roadway.

By late yesterday afternoon, the ODPEM had processed the Creek Street victims, and they had been supplied with the necessary paperwork to access short-term food and clothing from the Salvation Army.

According to ODPEM’s St James representative, Olga Headly, a meeting has been set for today with representatives of the Ministry of Labour, the parish’s disaster committee and Poor Relief Department. She spent much of yesterday trying to wade through the large group of people who descended on her office asking for assistance, but now long-term measures have to be put in place. Up to shortly before 5:00 pm, she was expecting about nine more persons — five children and four adults –who had lost their home in Riverside, to show up at her office and ask for help.

In the meantime, the fire department was still trying to determine the cause of all but one of the five blazes. At the Cornwall Court Housing scheme, where there was the least damage, it was determined that the fire was caused by a lit candle that ate its way through a barrel and set some clothing ablaze. Ironically, the fire took place in a fireman’s home.

But he and the other two occupants of his home were not left homeless, as they only lost a few items of clothing that had been stored in the barrel; and there was also some smoke damage. In the only other incident that did not leave anyone homeless, a car was damaged at Horizon Car Rental in the Ironshore section of the western city. But in Rosemount, six children and six adults lost their home after a fire Friday evening engulfed their home.