Quick response saves home

TH AVENUE, NEW ORLEANS, St Michael resident Albert Campbell pointing to some of the damage his home sustained. (Nigel Browne)

Wed, July 11, 2012 - 12:03 AM

AN UNUSUAL HEAT caused Lucia Gaston to stir from sleep early Sunday morning.

It was a close call for the 58-year-old Gaston as she became more alert and realized that an unoccupied house next to her 8th Avenue, New Orleans, St Michael home was engulfed in flames.

Gaston told the MIDWEEK NATION that while she was still puzzled as to how the fire which she discovered around 2:30 a.m. started, she thanked “God for his wake up call” which prompted her to call the Barbados Fire Service (BFS).

“I start to feel this heat. I decided to get up. When I get up, I see the house burning pretty, pretty and I had to call my husband quickly. We don’t have a phone here, so we asked our next door neighbour to call the fire service.”

Gaston said that despite the quick response by her and from the BFS, the insured house, which she rented, received extensive damage to the side and partial damage to the ceiling.

“I throw out a lot of things that damaged already. I have a lot of cleaning to do. But we could stay in the house, we don’t have to leave. The bedrooms and kitchen ain’t on the side of the house that burn.

“The landlord came and saw the damages and told us that it will take him a month to fix up the house,” she said.

“These things happen when houses are close. I thank the Lord that the wind was not blowing. If the wind was blowing, that fire would [have] spread faster and this whole house would [have] burned down. God knows [why] he woke me up out of my sleep at that time in the morning.”

Meanwhile, her husband, Albert Campbell, 77, praised and thanked the team from the BFS Probyn Street headquarters for their quick response and also “the way they took charge of that fire when they get here”. (AH)