A nine-month-old baby suffered burns to his face during a fire at a Sophia home on Tuesday night, which has left a once homeless family without a roof over their heads yet again.
Little Jeremiah Abrams was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital shortly after the blaze at his ‘E’ Field, Sophia home. His condition has been reported as stable. He was the only person from the home to have sustained injuries.
Also at home when the fire broke out were six-year-old Joshua, four-year-old Isaiah and two-year-old Joel. The children’s mother Petula Abrams was a little distance away.
Reports are that one of the children was playing with a kerosene lamp, which was on a chair in the small wooden shack, and knocked it over. The lamp fell on a pile of clothing on the floor and the fire started. The house was completely destroyed and everything lost except for a bag of confectionary.
When Stabroek News visited the area yesterday neither parent was home but the three boys were there with a woman who identified herself as a village leader. The woman gave her name as Marilyn Hilliman. She said her children delivered the news to her and she rushed over.
The woman said she knows the family and has been supportive of them from the time they moved to the area.
“I know them and I know the difficulties they faced. They had nowhere to live for a while and then someone offered them that place. Now they are left without a place again which is sad,” Hilliman stated.
Hilliman said that after assessing the situation she spoke with a few persons in the area and urged them to help the family in whatever way they could. According to Hilliman, the family is a good family but they are living under really difficult circumstances. She said the home was not much but it was a roof over their heads. She lamented the fact that it is now gone.
Joshua added that he has lost his school clothes and his brothers have lost their day-care clothes.
The child said he lost some other things that he liked very much such as a book and a toy car. (Iana Seales)
