Spanish Town fire leaves heartbreak

A massive fire that consumed three buildings in the heart of Spanish Town on Wednesday has disrupted post-mortem examinations at Archer’s Funeral Home and caused heartbreak for householders and school authorities.

A house and early childhood school were razed in the predawn fire while the funeral home, located on Young Street in the Old Capital, sustained damage to administrative sections of a building,

“We should have six post-mortems here today, but the fire damaged the electric connections in the administrative building. This adversely affect us and disrupted the programme, so we have to start working for restoration by Friday,” said Michael Archer, managing director of Archer’s.

He said the Tranquility and Archer’s morgues primarily deal with post-mortems in cases of suspected poisonings or suicides as well as forensic, crash, and trauma cases.

Despite expressing disappointment at the inconvenience caused to mourning families who travelled miles only to learn of the post-mortem postponements, Archer prized lives saved over millions of dollars in possessions lost in the inferno.

“Although I have an estimated loss of over $20 million, most importantly, we didn’t lose any life. The material things are replaceable,” Archer told The Gleaner.

“We have been doing business here from 2015, and five employees were here last night, so we are thankful that it’s only infrastructural damage that we suffered.”

The funeral home is fully insured, the managing director said.

Others affected by the fire are desperately seeking assistance.

Gloria Williams, who said she owned the building that housed the Kidsville Early Childhood Centre and the destroyed house, was devastated by news of the destruction..

“It is a sad thing as for years we operate the school and taught many, so I cannot come to the fact that this happened,” Williams told The Gleaner via phone call.

“I left the country a few days ago, and to be hit with this news, it’s just heartrending.”

Alia Williams, one of the householders, was still counting her blessings on Wednesday.

“Right now, it’s only the clothes on my back that I have saved,” Williams said.

“ I am very glad to be here, though, as it was another lady who wake me up after the smoke started to affect her asthma.”

The blaze was extinguished by four units from Spanish Town, Old Harbour, Linstead, and Portmore.

The firefighters received the emergency call at 2:16 a.m., said Assistant Superintendent Patrick Callum of the Spanish Town Fire Department.

Callum said that access to a functional hydrant was crucial in the dousing of the flames.

Neither the cause of the fire or the preliminary damage estimate was available up to press time.

rasbert.turner@gleanerjm.com