Mother & 2 Young Children Perish in Antelope Street Fire

Adriana Lord

Several persons lost their lives over the extended weekend and we’ll have these stories for you later. But we begin our newscast tonight with this morning’s inferno on Antelope Street Extension that has gripped the nation. A mother and her two children – one three years old and the other only three months old – lost their lives after being trapped inside their burning home. Despite efforts to save them, the trio perished inside a room. It’s a tragedy that has left the neighbourhood in disbelief. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

It was an emotional and tragic scene this morning on Antelope Street Extension where family and friends, as well as the entire neighbourhood stood watch.  Members of the police department carried and placed the charred remains of a mother and her two children into the pan of a pickup truck.  Just before seven a.m., a fire broke inside a wooden structure several yards from a police booth. Soon after, the community realised that at least one person was trapped inside the inferno and so, even before firefighters arrived on the scene, the neighbourhood attempted to rescue the family.

Bunny

Bunny, Relative of Deceased

“When I come down the stretch and see my family house di burn, all ah we come. The fire claim lee lives and thing; family members got loss and we have to try cope with right now. And as you can see, my family right dehn still di try process this whole thing. But we noh know weh create that fire deh soh, but it mess up lotta lives.”

Reporter

“You guys tried to put it out yourselves. How many were working to put out that fire?”

Bunny

“Thank God fi di fireman weh live yah soh, Mister Budd. Dehn throw cross dehn lee waterline and di try out the thing and the neighbours them, everybody mi di try out this thing, but it was just out of our control.”

The bodies of Adriana Lord and her two children were found among the vestiges of the place they called home. They were trapped inside a room with no window and the access path was cut off by fire, smoke and heat.

Kenneth Mortis

Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, National Fire Service

“After the fire was extinguished at the Antelope Street residence, fire-fighters were informed that the possibility of people being trapped could have been there and sure enough to the cries and the concerns, they observed what was the body of an unidentified adult. We further cleared the area and we learnt that it was a mother and two of her very young children that were caught in the said fire. Investigation went on to reveal that the first responding team, which was the neighbours and nearby residents for the area indeed heard the cries coming from the structure, however, attempts to reach them were futile as the building had already been consumed by heat, fire and smoke. It’s an unfortunate situation because regardless of how these untrained firemen tried to make an attempt to enter the building and then the trained fire-fighters arrived on the scene, even with the amount of smoke emanating from the building, we ourselves couldn’t make a successful attempt into the building. We notice from the remains of the structure that the house was filled to capacity with household furnishing and what have you – from wheelchair remains to bicycle remains. I am not saying that these were the path of travel for the occupants in the house, [but] it’s just that the furniture, the fuel load was too much and once the beams gave way, then the roof eventually collapsed which added as a obstacle for further path of travel.”

It is believed that the family died of smoke inhalation and not the fire, but a post-mortem examination will make that final determination. Investigation, so far, suggests that it was an electrical fire.  Here’s how Station Supervisor of the National Fire Service explains what it is believed happened.

Kenneth Mortis

“Initially when there is a cry for help from within a building, the first mindset is to try the doors. It didn’t dawn upon anybody to break down the walls of the exterior, so to speak. It was a wooden structure – one of age. It only took a matter of minutes before that building was completely engulfed in flames. We were able to conclude that the fire started as a result of an electrical flaw. All electrical remains show that they had deteriorated over a period of time and it gave way this morning. The fire worked its way up from the ceiling and then back down whereby all the smoke eventually came down to a lower level before the fire itself consumed the building. Once that happened visibility was poor and the mother couldn’t find her way out.”

Duane Moody for News Five.