Berry Street Fire Leaves Family of 4 Homeless
A family of four is tonight without a roof over its head after the place called home was gutted by fire this morning. The fire began just before six a.m. and quickly spread through the two-bedroom wooden structure belonging to Kareem Yorke. Inside at the time of the blaze was Yorke’s brother, his girlfriend and his eight-year-old son, who luckily escaped unscathed. Everything, however, was destroyed. Now the family is in need of assistance to recover. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
The charred remains of the wooden beams here on Berry Street are what were left behind following a house fire early this morning. It was a two-bedroom wooden structure and once home to Kareem Yorke, his girlfriend Carolyn Burke, his son and his brother. Just before six a.m., a fire broke inside the brother’s room and quickly spread to destroy the entire home. Burke says that she was asleep when the screams from her neighbour woke her up.
Carolyn Burke
Carolyn Burke, Fire Victim
“Normally every morning I get up four, four-thirty to prepare meals for him to take to work and he usually lef out about after five. But I noh usually go back go sleep; I usually stay up. But what happen this morning, I just mi kinda feel tired, do the routine as I usually do and I say make I take wah lee lay down and dah soh I fall into sleep. Weh wake me dah the neighbour weh live side ah we mi di halla. She mi di halla and when I jump up because smoke mi done deh ina di house already and fi he son at the time mi sleep side ah me. And I could tell yo, I just wake up, wake fi he son and dah soh we hurry come out. But when we come out – because fi he bredda live there too – fi he bredda room mi done deh under fire already. So I couldn’t a mi save nothing.”
Yorke, a security guard, had only just arrived at his work station when he got the dreaded call that the house was on fire. By the time he got back to the area, everything had already been destroyed and nothing was saved.
Kareem Yorke
Kareem Yorke, Fire Victim
“I mi just reach work, noh even settle in good and she call me off of my sister’s phone di explain to me the situation. By the time I reach, I end up have to ketch bus come from off of the road. And by the time I reach, dah because everything done burn away and gone. [I] lose everything.”
Carolyn Burke
“All I could remember when I get up and I wake up fi he son and when I run out because fi he bredda room was the one under fire. My room neva under [fire] nor the hall nor the kitchen; just smoke. That’s all I could remember.”
Duane Moody
“So I guess in your estimation, it started in your brother-in-law’s room?”
Carolyn Burke
“Mmhmm, mmhmm. .”
Duane Moody
“What you believe happened?”
Kareem Yorke
“Really and truly only my bredda could tell yo because then only he know weh he mi di do or weh he cause fi make that happen. Only he cause only he come…I noh know weh fu say – only he could explain that.”
Duane Moody
“Have you been able to talk to him because the thing is that it’s not only you guys that lost your home? He lost his home as well.”
Kareem Yorke
“Yeah, it’s true. To be honest, the rage weh I come under, I neva mi even have the time to talk. To be honest, me and mi bredda ketch ina wah lee small thing, but that’s as far as it went. I noh know weh fi say. Really and truly to come home to something shocking like that dah wah problem. Yo can’t even think.”
Yorke says that they had been living there for the past twelve years and would appreciate any assistance to rebuild what has been lost.
Kareem Yorke
“My sister, my female and dehn do dehn lee thing and try reach out to get a lee support ina any way we could.”
Duane Moody
“If anybody would want to, how can they?”
Kareem Yorke
“Well they could contact my number or my sister number. My number dah 630-8427 and we have 622-8118.”
The value of the house is unknown and it was uninsured. Duane Moody for News Five.
