Fire guts family home

A Barbados Fire Service officer dousing the flames and the charred remains of the burnt out abandoned house.

Keith Scott, 80, points to the burnt out house at Military Road, Bush Hall, that was his home for 25 years.

Some of the furniture which was saved from yesterday’s blaze at Bush Hall, St Michael, that engulfed two houses. (Pictures by Rawle Culbard.)

MP Mia Mottley (left) and Minister of Social Care Steve Blackett came to the assistance of the Scott family, who have been relocated to Deacons.

A Barbados Light & Power linesman making repairs after yesterday’s blaze that burnt two houses.

Fri, November 16, 2012 - 12:05 AM

For 25 years, Keith Scott made Military Road, Bush Hall, St Michael, his home. Yesterday, the 80-year-old man was forced to relocate after fire gutted his three-bedroom wooden home, destroyed a derelict house and damaged two others after 2 p.m.

Scott was asleep when fire destroyed an adjacent abandoned house before spreading to the house he lived in with his 34-year-old son, Terry, grand daughter Talisa, 22 months old, and Terry’s girlfriend Jalisa Maynard.

Jalisa, 19, was seeking medical care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital when the fire started.

Other members of the household had to scamper as the blaze quickly engulfed the house.

All their clothing was destroyed, but largely due to the help of neighbours, some furniture was saved.

Scott, who worked 21 years as an office technical assistant at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, was a little shaken but in relatively good spirits.

He rented the house from Linda Padmore, who lives in Brooklyn.

Long-serving Member of Parliament for the area (St Michael North East), Mia Mottley and Minister of Social Care Steve Blackett were quickly on the scene, and will assist the Scott family.

Blackett told the WEEKEND NATION, the Scotts would be temporarily housed in Bird’s River Gap, Deacons Road, and items such as a refrigerator and stove provided.

Mottley said her team would be working closely with the Welfare Department to ensure that the Scotts made a smooth transition to their new surroundings. Her team has already acquired toiletries for baby Talisa.

Vagrants reportedly frequent the abandoned, uninsured house owned by Vincentian Greta Charles.

Ilene Jones, an elderly woman who lived at the back of the burnt out building, was pulled out of her house by Maria Austin. Jones, who is reported to be in her 90s, was unhurt. Officers from the District “A” Police Station are probing the incident. (MK)