Arson suspected in Mahogany Street blaze

No sooner had the National Fire Service finished their work on the city’s northside, then they were off to the southside to battle the flames of another fire. This time the fire which started shortly after two this morning, totally destroyed the home of forty-six year old Myrtle McKenzie at the corner of Mahogany Street and Western Avenue. McKenzie, who did not wish to appear on camera, says she was sleeping with her six children when she was awakened by the persistent blowing of a car horn.

Myrtle McKenzie, Fire Victim

“A car was out there blowing and that wake me and when I open my eye, I see flame in my house but it come from under my house. I don’t know who do it, how it happen, but I just see flame from, over the corner of the house have all the flames. Well the first thing I remember is the gas tank because the gas tank could get in the fire and I just cut away the gas tank and I just haul it outside cause if that would have burst nobody would have been saved out of the house.”

Q: “Do you suspect the fire was deliberately set?”

Myrtle McKenzie

“Yes, it is a set fire, a set fire. I definitely know that it is a set fire because my daughter give a statement that who she was living with mention to she that something bad will happen and when it happen it will be him.”

Ryan Swift, Member, U.D.P. Lake Independence Committee

“So far what we see needed immediately is some food and so forth. So we brought some couple of boxes of food for them and we will be organizing ourselves to see how we can work together along with Mr. Hyde and his group to see how we can assist the family.”

The McKenzies are also receiving assistance from the Human Development Department. According to the police they suspect arson is involved and have detained a fifteen-year-old minor for questioning.