Three-year-old Isaias Lobos Perishes in Silk Grass Fire
Tragedy struck a family in Silk Grass, Stann Creek District, on Monday afternoon. Omar and Efijenia Lobos lost their three-year old son in a fire that totally gutted their small wooden house in the village. Inside the house on a bunk bed was Isaias. The fire swept quickly and the young boy could not be saved. His mother had stepped out momentarily when the fire broke. The family of seven other children, is attempting to pick up the pieces having lost a son and all their belongings. Here is News Five’s Isani Cayetano
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
Embers from a deadly house fire that consumed everything belonging to the Ojeda family continue to burn softly, despite the intermittent showers since the Monday afternoon blaze. The light smoke wafting from the debris is a sardonic reminder of the raging fire that claimed the life of three-year-old Isaias. He was asleep inside the wooden abode when it went up in flames here in Silk Grass Village.
Omar Ojeda, Fire Victim
Omar Ojeda
“When I came, I see the disaster. The house had burned, the vehicle got burned and one of my children got burned in there. He was sleeping on a bunk bed, so nobody couldn’t see him and that’s how he got burned in the house.”
Forty-seven-year-old Omar Ojeda, a food vendor of Stann Creek District, was in Independence Village selling boiled corn and ducunu at the time of the fire.
Omar Ojeda
“I was in Mango Creek doing my work and when they called me about four o’clock that the fire had, there’s a blaze at home here and I catch the six o’clock bus.”
When he arrived later that evening, it was to grave tragedy. Nothing could have been saved and Ojeda is still trying to figure out what could have been the cause of the fire. According to the grieving father, his wife, twenty-nine-year-old Efijenia Lobos, had left home momentarily when she noticed the blaze.
Omar Ojeda
“My wife was at home. At the moment, she only went to do an errand across the street and when she looked, the house was on fire and the next little boy was at the shop. We actually don’t know how it happened or where it started from.”
Isani Cayetano
“Omar, you’ve lost everything to the fire, including your youngest son, I believe, how are you trying to pick up the pieces? What’s happening here today?”
Omar Ojeda
“Well, we’re here and we’re waiting for the police to come and finalize their work and give the okay. We’re gonna clean up and wait for the morgue to get the kid and put him to rest. Well I know I have to keep on working after this and start all over, try to get everything back.”
Isani Cayetano
“You’re a very strong man, coming home to this kind of tragedy and already planning your way forward out of this. How are your other members of family coping with this tragedy?”
Omar Ojeda
“Yeah, they are coping good. When I came yesterday, well everybody was, you know, and I talked to them that life must continue and we have to start again and maybe work lee harder.”
Tonight, the family is without shelter and despite the father not knowing what transpired inside the home that led to the fire, a police report indicates that another of his sons was playing with a lighter inside the front bedroom and that the sponge caught fire.
Omar Ojeda
“Everything, and even some of my products got burned in the fire that I used for my business. Papers, documents, everything that we had in the household burned.”
Isani Cayetano
“What was the response in terms of either people coming to try to help to put out the fire or if there is a local fire service? What happened at that point, what were you told happened when the fire was burning and they were trying desperately to put it out?”
Omar Ojeda
“Yeah, only my neighbour across the road, well she saw the fire and she went inside and take out the kid but they didn’t see the baby and people started to gather and tried to out the fire, meanwhile the fire engine reached. When it got here, well everything was gone.”
Isani Cayetano
“Where was the fire engine coming from?”
Omar Ojeda
“I don’t actually know because I was not present at the time. I don’t know if it’s from Dangriga. Well that’s the closest one.”
Isani Cayetano reporting for News Five.
