FIRE yesterday destroyed sections of the Musgrave Childcare Facility along Lady Musgrave Road, displacing 42 girls who call the facility home.

One girl was rushed to the University Hospital of the West Indies for treatment after suffering a seizure caused by smoke inhalation.

The fire, which was believed to have been caused by an electrical short, began at approximately 12:30 pm. According to eyewitnesses, an explosion was heard shortly before the fire began.

“I went upstairs to the manager and she asked me if somebody light fire outside because of the smoke and I said no,” Mauline Muir, a worker at the home told the Observer. “When I came downstairs I saw the fire and we started moving out everybody. Some of the girls were at school at the time.”

Approximately 25 girls were in the home when the fire broke out and quickly engulfed the main building. A team from the Half-Way-Tree fire station that was called in to smother the raging flames had to seek help from the York Park fire station after a fire hydrant outside the girls’ home malfunctioned.

As the fire raged yesterday, a large crowd converged on the scene. The area was blocked off by the fire trucks, which worsened the regular afternoon traffic pile-up.

Some girls were seen crying and trembling as they were rushed from the premises into waiting vehicles which took them from the scene. Four physically disabled girls – one in a wheelchair – were staying at the premises.

Health Minister Horace Dalley, who was quick on the scene, said that the ministry would consider housing the girls at “small hotels”, noting that everything would be done to properly house them “even if it means putting them up at the [Jamaica] Pegasus [Hotel]”.

He said that the damage to the structure would be assessed in order to determine whether to demolish the structure and rebuild. Fire officials estimated that damage to the over three-decade-old building could cost approximately $17 million. The property is valued at $20 million.

“The most important thing now is that the girls are OK,” he stressed.

Immediately after the fire the displaced girls, whose ages range from 14 to 18, were temporarily transferred to the Marie Gold, Homestead and Glenhope places of safety, according to Mayor Desmond McKenzie, who was among the persons who helped to evacuate the girls from the premises.

Yesterday, McKenzie called on the business sector and the “wider society to help bring back this home so the girls can have a proper roof over their heads”.

Only about four chairs, a desk, a computer, some items of clothing and a fridge, earlier donated by the Mayor, were saved.

According to a well-placed source in the health ministry, the home could be relocated as it has long been held that the location was no longer ideal for a girls’ home, as men were “preying on and sexually assaulting” them. Records and other documents belonging to the facility were also destroyed.