In Ladyville, Japan Area Family Burned Out of House and Home

There was a third fire which caused a family of five to spend the weekend with relatives in Ladyville. The place they called home went up in flames just after six o’clock on Friday night. Delvorine Reyes and her four children were not at home and they lost everything in the blaze. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

This charred wooden structure in the Japan Area is what is left of the place once called home to Delvorine Reyes and her children for almost a decade. Just after six on Friday evening, a fire broke inside one of the bedrooms before it consumed the entire house. The children were not at home and their mother was still at work when the fire started. Police and firefighters responded shortly after. By the time firefighters got into operation and extinguish the blaze, all had been lost.

Juanito Cocom

ASP Juanito Cocom, O.C., Ladyville Police

“A fire occurred on Friday, the twenty-fifth…at about six-twenty p.m., police responded to a scene in the Japan area of Ladyville. Upon arrival, they saw a wooden structure about three feet off the ground about twenty by thirty engulfed in flames. The fire service arrived; however, most of the house had already been consumed by the fire.”

Marie Gongora lives next door to Reyes and her four young children for the past eight years. Gongora says she was inside her shop when she was alerted by the smell of burning varnish.

Marie Gongora

Marie Gongora, Neighbor

“I smell like varnish burning and I said I hope it is not something bad or somebody would dead. So we stay there and she gone sit down in the sofa and I sit down right there and when I look through the window I smoke and I say Carol, Carol, Doreen house di burn. I run out and I holla cause I see two child dah mi sister. And I shout Melissa, Melissa, Brian Brian…unu house di burn bwai, come come, come.”

Gongora ran out of her house screaming for help. She says that while other residents came out to the scene, they felt helpless because they couldn’t save anything.

Marie Gongora

“I mi di rush fi go towards the house when my little grandson grab me and say, “No granny, wah gas tank deh in there.” And I holler out for the neighbors. Well woman come out but we couldn’t do nothing. Then they call for the fireman and take long and when dehn come, dehn have to get ready, but the fire di blaze…blaze. I start to shout and I cry—noh shame to say it—because I have heart for all of my neighbors.”

Duane Moody

“We understand that five people lived in there; Miss Delvorine and her four children and everything was lost.”

Marie Gongora

“Everything lost…every, everything. Only a small gas tank like that left…No clothes, no nothing…no bed.”

When we checked with the national fire service, the details about the fire had not been forwarded to headquarters. But according to police, officials are in the process of determining if the fire was deliberately set?

ASP Juanito Cocom

“We are in that process as we speak. The inspectors from the fire service have not determined that so far.”

Reporter

“No one was hurt in the fire?”

ASP Juanito Cocom

“No one was hurt; only material damages.”

Reporter

“Was the house insured?”

ASP Juanito Cocom

“No, it wasn’t.”

Duane Moody for News Five.