Nine members of a family are now homeless after fire destroyed their Whitehall Avenue, St Andrew, home and business place yesterday.

Morieka James, one of the fire victims, told the Jamaica Observer that she was on her way to work sometime after 9:00 am when she saw smoke coming from her father’s upholstery shop.

She said she alerted the other members of her family and attempts were made to extinguish the fire.

Acting Assistant Superintendent Lawrence Campbell, of the York Park Fire Station, told the Observer that a distress call was received and the team arrived at the scene of the fire eight minutes later.

However, residents who were present complained that the firefighters arrived without sufficient water in their trucks.

In responding to the residents’ complaints, Assistant Superintendent Campbell said two units from the Half-Way-Tree and Trench Town fire stations were called to assist. He said, too, that the water capacity of the units are not “great”, but insisted that trucks are refilled as soon as they leave the scene of a fire.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but Campbell said investigations are under way.

— Sandrice White