Ahmad Family needs help to recover from fire that gutted home

On Tuesday, a fire gutted the Ahmad family house in Hattieville. Fourteen persons were displaced by the morning blaze. The Ahmads are attempting to rebuild their home, but with the economic downturn, money is not easy to come by. News Five’s Duane Moody was in Hattieville and has this report.

Duane Moody Reporting
You worked all your life for something and in the blink of an eye you lose everything. That was the general sentiments of members of the Ahmad family as they spoke of the disaster that struck the family Tuesday morning when a fire destroyed five-bedroom, three-bathroom wooden and concrete home…everything was lost.

Fareed Ahmad, Fire Victim
“This house had a lot of valuable contents which I can’t list all of them, but lot of valuable contents. But everything was destroyed, everything including new furnitures that were just bought, electronics, everything was destroyed. And like I said, it’s very unfortunate that the house wasn’t insured at the time but….that’s all I can say.”

Ansaar Ahmad, Fire Victim
“We were alerted while at work.”

Duane Moody
“Nobody was at home?”

Ansaar Ahmad
“My brother and his wife also with his son was here.”

Fareed Ahmad
“The heat was so much that even some of the steel structures in the building, the wall seems to be cracking at certain spots, the plastering destroyed. I see tiles pop off the floor because the heat was so intense—the tiles popped off the floor like popcorn.”

After the fire was extinguished, only the charred structure remained. But what could have caused the fire? It was an iron that was left on in a bedroom.

Kenneth Mortis, Training Officer, National Fire Service (File: Sept. 22nd, 2009)
“This morning we received the call of a house fire in the Hattieville area. The team responded and extinguished it, after which the investigation commenced. We learnt that the building was owned and occupied by Miss Lana Ahmad and her family. Some time this morning, one of her older sons, Nadir, he was doing some ironing before he went to work. He works at the Hattieville prison and Nadir forgot to dis-plug the iron. It was probably some while after that one of the younger siblings observed smoke coming from the direction of his room. To make an attempt to gain entry into his room—the room was locked so forcible entry had to be made by the family members. But by the time this was done, they were overcome by smoke. So they had to evacuate the building. The fire then consumed the entire building, leaving the family now homeless.”

Fareed Ahmad
“I’m not sure who left on the iron. I know that the iron was by the bed and it started by the bed. Spread in the room and the fire reach the ceiling, which I think was the catalyst because it just spread quickly because it just ran through the house within minutes. I’m talking about within five to ten minutes this whole house was completely engulfed in flames after the fire started. How the iron started burning the bed, I don’t understand. I’m still trying to figure it out.”

On Tuesday the family was too distraught to speak to the media, but today, they are pleaded for some assistance to rebuild their house which housed fourteen persons.

Fareed Ahmad
“If anybody would like to assist, I think we immediately need construction materials basically. The other stuff, I think we could handle amongst ourselves. We do need construction supplies. Probably steel, cement, sand, gravel, blocks. We have the labor its just some material we need to start up.”

According to Ahmad the house is estimated at a minimum of two hundred thousand dollars. Duane Moody Reporting for News Five.

If anyone would like to assist the Ahmad family, you can contact them at 600-3974 or 667-0809.