Painful Christmas

While many Jamaicans are gearing up to celebrate Christmas within two days’ time on December 25 in the comfort of their homes, Tyshie Williams and her four children will still be sorting through the ruins of what was once theirs.

Their wooden home was among two units burnt to the ground on Thursday afternoon in a suspected firebombing incident on Cleveland Road in east Kingston.

Now displaced, the 26-year-old mother told The Gleaner on Friday said that she is particularly worried about going into the new year without any means of sending her four- and six-year-olds back to school because their school supplies, bags and other belongings were destroyed.

Williams, who is now staying with relatives who live on the same plot of land but whose dwelling was spared by the flames, said that her home had been in a terrible state as the structure was tumbling down due to rotting boards.

A stove, a refrigerator, a television set and bedding are among some items which the family lost.

The distressed mom said she is in desperate need of help to not only make her Christmas cheerful, but to get back on her feet and to be able to care for her children, who are without baby formula, diapers and other necessities.

“I only saved one bag a clothes for them and myself,” she told The Gleaner, appealing for the public’s assistance in replacing some of these items and building a new home.

Williams said that she was on the road conducting business on Thursday, when she received the call that her home was on fire.

The blaze was extinguished by two units from York Park Fire Station, which responded to the emergency call at 2:40 p.m.

Emeleo Ebanks, public relations officer for the Jamaica Fire Brigade, could not provide further details of the incident.

Williams said her children, who were at home when the fire started, are visibly uneasy. Although her four-year-old and six-year-old children have not voiced their feelings, they were in shock when she arrived at the location on Thursday.

“I feel down,” the mother managed to say, noting that her eldest child would not be gifted with the tablet and bicycle that she wanted for Christmas.

Residents of the area believe that the fire was deliberate. They lamented that despite gang warfare in the community causing them to increase the height of the way at the back of the premises some six months ago and that along the neighbouring lane of Malvern Avenue, they proved not to offer enough security.

Noel Napier, who owns the second destroyed dwelling, is at a loss for words as after returning from his construction job in St Thomas and not seeing the structure that he left there.

He told The Gleaner that although he received a call on Thursday, he was unaware of the magnitude of the destruction, noting that he lost not only his belongings, but also items which relatives had given him for safekeeping.

“A just one suit a clothes pon mi back, ‘cause mi just pack some working clothes, and now that you hear what happen, there is nothing that you can draw for; not even a pants,” he said.

Napier is currently staying with nearby relatives, but remains optimistic that he will be able to acquire material to rebuild through the assistance of the public while also working to gather enough funds to start the process.

“Coming on the bus, I don’t know how to feel,” he said of his journey back to Kingston to face his new reality.

He said that alleged arsonists had previously attacked the yard within the past year, but not much damage was sustained because the explosive device fell on to a concrete structure and the flames were put out by residents.

“Mi never did a look fi see them coming back,” he added, noting that criminals had become more daring to carry out such attacks in the daytime.

The residents lamented that neither representatives from the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation nor Kingston Eastern Member of Parliament Phillip Paulwell had visited to offer assistance.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com