Bucket brigade saves Hunter Lane house from burning down
Valentine Ferguson
While all attention was on the main blaze which engulfed the buildings and killed one young woman, there was much drama being played out in Hunter’s Alley beside and behind the two buildings. The fresh sea breeze in this instance became the enemy of residents, feeding the hungry flames and neighbours were at real risk. Valentine Ferguson lives in Hunter’s Alley and told us that only quick thinking and good old community effort saved his home.
Valentine Ferguson, Resident, Hunter’s Lane
“I started to alarm my neighbours and everybody came out and as soon as we could gather ourselves together, we started to full some buckets…I went inside and got some buckets and the other neighbours dehn brought buckets. I also, before I started to do that, I got my wife’s phone and I called 911 and I informed them of that and they said that they would quickly dispatched the services that were necessary. Then we resumed filling buckets and we started to douse the back of my house with water. My neighbours they were very helpful and I want to tell them thank you for coming out and giving us a hand. The heat was on as it was spreading from this building right directly behind me to the other building on the left and it was also going across that way. And the wind was very high and throwing a lot of blazes and stuff but the guys were very helpful and they manned it out. We kept throwing water on my house and the little pieces that were throwing across, they took the machete and cleared the coconut limbs that were across my fence that was also starting to pick on fire and stuff like that and that’s how we kept it. A little while after that, the firemen came and brought in hoses. I don’t know how the front was going on, but they were constant blaze on the back.”
Reporter
“So then at no point did anyone go to the front? You guys were concerned about what was happening back here and spreading?”
Valentine Ferguson
“Exactly, we couldn’t see what was going on in the front because the entire area was engulfed in smoke and big blazes. If you notice the structure right in the back here and all these trees that were burnt and scorched and also over there…it was really, it was really whipping up. It quickly spread over that way and like I said a lot of people were here and they gave us a hand. We moved out our stuff and the neighbour opened up his yard and we stored all the stuff over there. My neighbour over there, he lone us a hose that came in through this fence and we kept on putting water on the structure. And because this is a wooden structure and it is old, I say thank god that we are still standing here.”
Buildings beside and behind Business Computer Systems did receive some damage, but relatively speaking they escaped in good shape.
