Firefighting family devastated by crash tragedy

When Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) Assistant Superintendent Garnett Douse was presented with a Badge of Honour for meritorious service on National Heroes Day nearly two months ago, he had promised to personally show his medals to son Larenzo when he next visited St Ann. That promise will never be fulfilled.

Larenzo, who served the brigade for six years, was tragically killed in a motor vehicle crash on November 30 in Ocho Rios. He was 25.

His passing has distressed the family, which has deep roots in the fire service.

Douse has led three other families to enlist with the JFB, the latest being his adopted daughter, 21-year-old Shahine Nelson. She was one of 102 new firefighters who graduated earlier this month in a ceremony in St Mary and is expected to serve in St Catherine.

Douse’s brother, Anthony McLean, also enlisted, breaking from his university studies to serve his country before returning to complete his degree while still with the brigade.

Larenzo’s life was cut short in the road crash days before Nelson’s graduation.

The elder Douse said he was actually at a funeral when he got the news. His first thoughts were about his mother who, along with his sister, helped raise Larenzo from he was a few months old.

“The first thing that came to mind was, how am I going to tell my mother?” Douse told The Gleaner.

“It’s my mother and my sister who actually grew him from he was months old; he calls my sister ‘Mommy’,” he added. “So that was the hardest task. How to get that across? Even though I was mourning so much, I still had to be mindful that I held it together because I had to break it to them.”

Douse’s brother, McLean, was on the scene when the deadly crash occurred. On hearing the impact, McLean reportedly spun around and saw Larenzo pinned between the car and the truck. According to the patriarch, McLean’s assessment of his son’s condition was heart-rending.

“Him say, ‘Bredda, Larenzo mash up, him mash up!’” the dad recalled.

Garnett Douse pressed him further for information, which was even more jarring. McLean reportedly said: “Him back bruck, him head bruck, everywhere bruck up.”

Douse said that the death has “devastated” the family.

Making firefighting the family business has been a long journey in coming.

The elder Douse had already served a year with the service when Larenzo was born in 1997, with Shahine following a few years later.

Both children lived and breathed firefighting.

“He used to come to the station regular; all he knows he wants to be like his father. Shahine, she’s around mi from three, four years old. Same thing, she’s at my home, she sees the fire clothes, they come to the station, I put them on the fire truck, I give them a little drive on the truck, so all they know is firefighting,” the elder Douse said in a Gleaner interview.

Garnett said that he and Larenzo had a close bond and he treasures many of those pleasant memories.

He shared humorously: “Larenzo growing up, he was a jovial child, a ‘mannersable’ youth. I remember one time I had to say to him, ‘Listen, man, if people outa road a pass an’ you deh pon you veranda, a dem supposed to call to you. You inna the house an mi a hear you a say, ‘Good morning, Miss Campbell,’ and a Miss Campbell a pass outa road.”

Larenzo’s passing impacted firefighting colleagues across the island and prompted responses from Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie and the St Ann Municipal Corporation, with St Ann’s Bay Mayor Sydney Stewart leading a team to visit the Ocho Rios Fire Station to meet with the fire team.

A St Catherine high-school past student, Nelson was training at the fire service base in Tower Isle, St Mary, when she was summoned to the office. She was preparing for graduation on December 3.

Her superiors did their best to break the tragic news to her gently. They succeeded, getting her laughing before interjecting that her elder brother had died.

“So I was actually still laughing, and then they said it again, and they were saying condolences and then it hit – ‘What? My brother died?’ Then tears started to flow because my brother dead. I started crying,” she related to The Gleaner from the family home in Angels, St Catherine.

And the grief sank in further when her fellow recruits lowered the flag in the drill square – a sign of respect for a firefighter who dies.

Nelson said the entire team, including the trainees, rallied around her.

More than anything else, Nelson said she will remember Larenzo’s positive outlook on life.

“Even in bad situations, he is always a person to motivate and encourage you to smile,” she explained.

“He’s always smiling and his smile brightens up a room. In the good and the bad, he’s always smiling, no matter what he’s going through, and he’s always open and willing to speak about anywhere he’s going wrong. He was mature enough to speak about that.”

Larenzo’s funeral arrangements are being finalised.

carl.gilchrist@gleanerjm.com