WESTERN BUREAU – April isn’t a good month for 47 year-old St James farmer, Teddy Foster.

Last April, torrential rains claimed the lives of his eight pigs and 500 chickens. Having received 50 broilers and eight bags of feed from the Rural Agricultural Development Agency, he was on the road to recovering from the floods.

But that was before Wednesday night’s fire that gutted his 10-apartment home and green grocery in Lilliput, leaving an estimated $11 million in damage.

The fire has changed everything.

“I don’t know how me suh salt,” a distressed Foster told the Observer. “It was just last year I was flood out and lost a lot of chickens and pigs, and now I lost everything in the fire.”

He and his eight year-old daughter, Shamoya, were in Montego Bay at the time of the fire while his two sons – aged 10 and 12 – were out playing football with other community boys.

“When I reach home, I saw two fire trucks putting out the blaze. I did not save anything, except for a few items of clothes,” Foster added.

Among the items that are said to have gone up in smoke are:

. three freezers and two refrigerators;

. three television sets and two what-nots;

. two dressers and three beds;

. 30 chairs, used for rental, and three beds; as well as

. a storeroom of clothes.

Thirteen year-old Romaine McLean, who was playing football with Foster’s sons at the time of the fire, said their game was interrupted by one of their peers who has a reputation of being a prankster. The boy, he said, told them that there was smoke coming from the Foster house, but they ignored him. Minutes later, they saw billows of thick, black smoke coming from the residence.

The fire department was summoned while community members used garden hoses to help contain the blaze. But it was already too late. When firefighters arrived, the only task left to perform was the cooling down. There is no word yet about the cause of the fire.

Foster, who is a single parent, has since been referred to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security for assistance. Until then, he and his three children are staying with friends in Lilliput.