Cause of Hibiscus/Vernon Street Fire Undetermined

The National Fire Service today provided official details on a fire that destroyed four houses and left fifteen persons displaced. The mid-afternoon inferno occurred last Friday and investigation reveals that the fire started in the one of the structures at the rear of the property. It was a massive loss because nothing could have been saved and neither the property nor its contents were insured. Today, Station Supervisor Kenneth Mortis told the media that the family is not cooperating with the authorities and as such the cause of the fire is undetermined.

Kenneth Mortis

Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, National Fire Service

“These four houses had a total of fifteen family members being displaced. The cause of the fire, from a Fire Department perspective, is concluded as undetermined for the mere reason that family members are not fully cooperating with us and two, they are denial in recording the information we have received from the scene.”

Duane Moody

“Was the fire department able to determine where the fire started because there were several structures in that property?”

Kenneth Mortis

“There were several structures indeed. The fire started in one of the buildings situated in the back whereby reports reaching our investigating team was that some of the kids were left in the house unattended while the adults were out front and hence the reason I mentioned earlier that the parents of these children adamantly deny such claims and due to any lack of cooperating from these families unfortunately we have to rule this fire as undetermined. When we arrived, two houses were already consumed, while the other two were in the initial stage. The operational tactic that was laid down by the fire team had us fighting this fire from off Vernon Street and off the street parallel to Vernon [Street] and after that, we had consumed our water, go find supplementary water and then come back.  It was a back and forth. The only thing that we then had to focus on was control or mitigate the loss, mitigate the damage so as not to have a fifth building consumed by the fire.”