As many of the 3,449 Jamaicans left homeless due to fires between 2020 and 2021 can attest, recovering from a blaze that consumed almost everything you own is not easy.

Invariably, after a fire, there are anguished appeals for help and a frantic scramble to find a place to stay. The heart-wrenching stories, especially the ones where children are involved, have become far too frequent.

According to data from the Jamaica Fire Brigade, home fires increased by roughly 5.79 per cent in 2021 — up to 1,773 from the 1,676 blazes of 2020. In their sooty wake, 2,464 adults and 985 children.

Among those still picking up the pieces more than a year after a fire is 58-year-old Jenave Darby. She lost everything when her Buck Heights, Clarendon, house went up in flames in December 2020.

“Since the house burnt down I haven’t been doing well. I have been sick and I just don’t feel like myself anymore, I even have high blood pressure now because I keep on thinking about how I lost everything,” Darby told the Jamaica Observer.

She was at church when she got the call that there was a fire at her house. Very little help has come her way, she said, and she has been unable to rebuild. She is still hoping that will change.

“I’m now moving from one family member to another and it is so stressing because staying with family sometimes is not the best thing. I need my own little place,” she added wistfully.

Six months after Darby’s life was forever changed by an unwelcome blaze, Dean Grant also lost his Arnett Gardens house to fire. He, too, said he is still struggling to get back on his feet and has received very little help. But, unlike Darby, he has made some progress. With his salary from a maintenance job at an apartment complex in the Corporate Area, he has managed to buy a few items that will be used to make his house habitable once more.

“Mi hustle and try to buy some windows and mi ask around and get some paint but mi don’t really get much help. So the place is no comfort because mi don’t have any bed or stuff like that. Mi mostly stay at my girlfriend place since it happen,” the 48-year-old told the Observer.

However, he is determined not to allow the fire to completely derail his life.

“Mi trust God so mi don’t really let it affect mi. I just want to move on. Most times when I watch and see how things reach other people and they get back on their feet mi just get that motivation,” he shared.

It may be a bit harder for children to bounce back.

“Sometime mi son will just look sad and when mi ask if him alright him say, ‘Mommy, mi want mi house.’ That just hurt me to know that my son is uncomfortable and I am not in a position to help him,” a distraught Shadeed Harvey told the Observer last year after losing their family house to flames.

According to data provided by the Jamaica Fire Brigade, 502 children’s lives were changed by fire in 2021. Harvey’s seven-year-old son Melique Bailey and his three-year-old brother Chevoy Bailey are among them. After an August 26 fire gutted their Cave Valley, St Ann house, they spent many nights in the family car which is also used as a taxi during the day, the family’s main source of income.

The two young boys are now living in a rented house with their mother and their father Secrant Bailey. They are all struggling to adjust to their new reality.

“The fire affected us a lot because we have to start all over and it is not easy. We got some help from people who saw the story [in the Observer] to buy food and such which we are grateful for,” Harvey said.

“We are still renting at the moment because I have to think about making the children comfortable. But I would still want back our own place,” she added.

Also among minors affected by fire are 46-year-old Anthony Kirkland’s three children who are seven, nine and four months old. They, along with Kirkland’s and his wife Tamara, are staying with a female member of the church they attend. Their loss is still fresh from a December 17, 2021 blaze that razed their house in Great Pond, Ocho Rios.

“Our relatives and church family fall in and a give a helping hand for which we are grateful. We also know things are going to get better in time,” Kirkland told the Observer.

Citing the significant number of people who have lost property and belongings to fire over the years, acting public relation officer at the Jamaica Fire Brigade Kerry-Gayl Forbes is hoping Jamaicans will be more cautious while at home.

“Let us remember that fires are dangerous. Do not leave cooking unattended; do not overload your electrical circuits as this can cause a fire. While you work from home also remember to be vigilant and keep fire-starting items away from children,” he urged.

2020:

Total fires 1,676

Total adults affected 1,194

Total children affected 482

2021:

Total fires 1,773 up 5.79 per cent

Total adults affected 1,270

Total children affected 503

2020 to 2021:

Total fires 3,449

Total adults affected 2,464

Total children affected 985