Instead of having a meal and enjoying themselves on Christmas Day, residents of a tenement at the intersection of Charles Street and Love Lane in downtown Kingston spent Friday trying to retrieve anything they could from the charred remains of their homes that were razed on December 23.

The fire left at least 30 people, among them children and senior citizens, homeless.

Ninety-year-old Veleta Taylor, who told the Jamaica Observer she has been living at the premises for more than 40 years, said she lost everything in the fire.

Her simple request, though, was for help to replace her night clothes.

“I would like some nightie,” Taylor said, adding that the loss of her belongings was difficult for her to accept.

When she was asked if this was her worst Christmas ever, Taylor said: “Yea, but ah so it go.”

Another resident, Tashay Holt, related that she was heading home from work when she got a call, while in Half-Way-Tree, that the houses were on fire.

“By the time I got here everything was flat. The only thing I saw was heavy smoke. The only thing I think was saved for me was my birth certificate, my passport, my TRN card and ID and a few other things. But everything else is gone — clothes, shoes, etc.”

Holt lamented that the section of the premises where she lived was recently refurbished.

“There’s no Christmas because yu know, we were basically one family so we were planning to get together, but the devil took it away from us,” she said.

“We just have to give thanks that we have life and no one was hurt. That’s the greatest thing. We have to give thanks.”

She said she has set up a GoFundMe account with the hope of getting donations to be shared among the victims.

“It’s not going to be much, but it’s something so everybody can get and say, ‘Yes, I can make a start’,” Holt said.

The fire has been particularly hard on 47-year-old Andrea Rosekane who has three children, ages 22, 19, and 16. They were unable to save anything.

The mother, who said she has been living at the premises since she was 17 years old, was busy trying to clean the place when the Sunday Observer visited.

“We were planning to cook and enjoy ourselves Christmas Day, but we haffi jus’ clean clean up; wi nuh have nutten more fi do,” she said.

“Thank God say nobody nuh dead and wi have life.”