Three children perish in St Ann house fire

Three children perished in a house fire in Walkerswood, St Ann, early Sunday morning.

The St Ann Fire Department responded to a call about the blaze at 2:24 a.m.

Julian Davis-Buckle, Assistant Commissioner of the Jamaica Fire Brigade in charge of Area Two, confirmed the incident and told The Gleaner that two units, one from Ocho Rios and another from St Ann's Bay, responded to the scene.

“We were advised that someone was trapped, and upon arriving, we were further informed that three children were reported missing. We immediately initiated our search-and-rescue and suppression operations simultaneously,” Davis-Buckle said.

During the cooling-down operation, the remains of the three children were discovered.

The children, two girls and a boy, were aged two, three, and seven.

“We had two fire units and 19 firefighters on location,” Davis-Buckle added.

Preliminary reports indicate that the children's grandmother, who was at home with them, woke up to discover the fire in the room where the children were sleeping.

She reportedly managed to escape with one child who had been sleeping with her.

The fire brigade was subsequently summoned to the scene.

Meanwhile, this tragic incident follows a similar one on Wednesday in Whitehall, St Andrew, where a five-year-old girl, Kimberly Harrison, also died in a house fire.

Investigations into both incidents are ongoing.

- Andre Williams

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