3 Homes Destroyed in Apparent Case of Arson

A house fire on Antelope Street this afternoon has left twelve persons homeless.  The blaze is said to have been an act of arson, following a dispute in the early hours of this morning among families occupying the property.  According to Shovannie Vega, she was at the police station filing a report when she received word from her brother-in-law that her house was on fire.  Vega says that during the altercation several threats were made of torching the residence.

Voice of: Shovannie Vega, Fire Victim

“We noh know how di fyah start because we just gaan mek di report da police station because Sunday bout two o’clock eena di morning dehn mih done intend fu burn down fu we house.  So me and my sista Monique, we gaan da di police station and we gaan mek di report and then we get wahn call from fu she baby pa and tell we di house deh pan fyah.  But before we gaan da station, we and fu she uncle and ih woman ketch eena argument and dehn tell we dehn wahn burn down fu we house.  And we gaan mek di report, and as we deh da di station dehn call and tell we di house deh pan fyah, but nobody neva deh home, all ah we mi deh da di police station.”

Reporter

“How many people live here?”

Voice of: Shovannie Vega

“Like ten or twelve ah we. Three different house but twelve ah we live ya.”

Reporter

“Okay, so you went to make the report, how long did it take for the fire truck to come?”

Voice of: Shovannie Vega

“Well when we gaan mek di report dehn tell we fi wait fi Scenes of Crime when we di wait, same time my sister-in-law get the phone call, fu she baby pa call ahn and tell ahn fu we house deh pan fyah when we hyah di siren da back.  So when we hyah dat di police bring we straight da back ya but everything get burn down.”