Lelieth Lennon thanked God for extending mercy to her and her family Monday evening as firefighters from Half-Way-Tree Fire Station put out a blaze that destroyed her six-bedroom house and a home-based business run by herself and her daughter on Red Hills Boulevard in St Andrew.

Her daughter, Paula Porter, shared that she was inside her room with the children when she smelled smoke and went to check for the source.

When she realised what was happening she ran back into the room, grabbed the children, and escaped through a back door.

“The devil is a liar,” Lennon yelled, before relating that the fire started just after 5:00 pm on her verandah where she had stored goods, such as clothing and plastic slippers. She tried to douse the fire with water, she said, but it spread quickly.

“Mi never see one fire blaze so yet. The [mosquito] destroyer turn over and catch the curtain outside. By the time I run out there the settee was on fire. I started to throw water but the plastic slippers started to blaze and the fire just went zoop into the ceiling,” Lennon said.

“The more we threw water, it went up in the ceiling. I never see something escalate so fast before. We have an online store and I sell downtown, too. Mi come een and the mosquitoes were plenty in the house and a clean mi a go clean out the house,” she explained.

“Mi a try fi be strong. We don't know where we will sleep tonight,” she said.

Lennon told the Jamaica Observer that her daughter had just bought supplies, including diapers and baby food for her two-year-old son. But those all went up in flames.

According to Lennon, the house was valued more than $40 million and the goods over $1.5 million.