FOUR children will start the new year homeless, after fire ravaged their house at 90 Windward Road in Kingston yesterday.

The children are among eight people who ran from a four-bedroom board house when they heard an occupant shouting, “Fire”, just before 9:00 am.

“I was in my kitchen when mi hear seh fire. By me fi come out me just tell me babymother fi bring out di baby and tek out di cylinder,” the children’s father, 47-year-old Rohan Thomas, told the Jamaica Observer.

“This alone mi have,” he said, tugging at his shirt.

Thomas continued: “Give thanks fi life ’cause mi could a bun up in deh too, a could a night [it happen].”

Despite not having a roof over his head, Thomas said he is looking forward to happiness and prosperity in 2020.

Another fire victim and shop operator, 57-year-old Ferde Lawrence, told the Observer that he had put measures in place to expand his shop that was also destroyed in the blaze.

“Me paint up [the shop] from the first week of November, the whole entire place… me plan fi start sell some big food next week ’cause me used to sell hot dollaz, like $100 food,” Lawrence said, adding that he also wanted to offer a variety of groceries to his customers.

Another victim, Tony Findley, who said he was across the street when the fire started, said he, too, lost everything.

“Me run come over and a try go in and di police dem draw me and say mi nuh fi go in there, so mi did a try see if mi can go save mi clothes dem and things. Mi couldn’t get fi save nothing. Mi just watch it a burn,” Findley said.

Efforts by the Observer to get a comment from the Jamaica Fire Brigade in relation to the cause of the fire and the number of units used to extinguish the blaze, up to press time, were futile.

— Racquel Porter