Falmouth, Trelawny – A two-year-old infant, who was left in the care of her 19 year-old aunt by her mother, died yesterday afternoon in a fire which swept through the family’s two-room board house where the infant was left unattended.

The dead toddler has been identified as Nikalia Nelson of 7 Newton Street, Falmouth, Trelawny.

The fire, which was reported to have started at about 1:30 pm – shortly after Myrtle Reynolds, mother of the baby, left for work at a hotel in Rose Hall – quickly consumed the building before a unit from the Falmouth Fire Station, which is located a few metres from the house, could respond to the call.

Reynolds was still on her way to work when she learnt of the tragedy via a telephone call. She had to be admitted to the Falmouth Hospital after breaking down when she returned and saw the charred remains of her daughter. Nothing was saved from the blaze, which is believed to have been sparked by an electrical short circuit.

Yesterday’s incident follows closely on the heels of Sunday’s fire in which two children – Serena Brown, 2, and Lamar Bennett, 4, who were left unattended – lost their lives.

In that incident, a three-apartment board house in Frome, Westmoreland was razed.

Yesterday, tears flowed freely down the cheeks of family members and a large crowd of people at the scene as they looked at pieces of burnt furniture, including the bed on which the infant was lying when she was trapped inside the inferno.

Elaine Gardner, a next door neighbour, said that she was inside her house when she was alerted by her son that smoke was coming from the house. She said when she investigated, she saw a pall of thick, black smoke coming from the house.

Gardner said a strong afternoon wind allowed the flames to race through the building.

Little Nikalia was heard screaming for help, but the heat emanating from the building prevented them from entering the building to rescue her. One man, after failing to enter through one of the doors, tried to gain entry through a window. He was struck by a piece of burning board which fell from the roof of the building and knocked him off the window back outside.

“From me a hear about fire burning down buildings is the first me realise how dangerous it is,” said Gardner. “I feel I could have walked straight through the fire and rescue the baby, but me have to ease off when I got near the door because of the red hot heat.

“The baby was so nice, she so nice, me feel it, me feel it,” an obviously traumatised Gardner told the Observer.

The Observer was told that the aunt in whose care the baby was left had only walked to another house on the same premises when the tragedy struck.