A four-year-old whose mother left him alone while she went to ‘pick bush’ was saved by neighbours yesterday when a fire of unknown origin engulfed their home.
Malika London, 26, and her son Samuel Chapman of 146 El Dorado Avenue, South Ruimveldt Gardens are now homeless following the fire which started some time around 11 am.
Reporter Mondale Smith, who was on the scene, said London is his niece. The woman, he said, had left her son in the yard to go “pick some bush because they have flu”. Fifteen minutes, London received a call on her cell phone informing her that her house was on fire.
A neighbour had already rescued the child unknown to London who rushed back and attempted to enter the yard to the burning building. She was stopped by Smith, who was over at the Brutal TV studio a corner away doing a recording when he got news of the fire.
“I was about to take photos for my Facebook and then I saw the woman at her gate screaming ‘Samuel! Samuel! Ow God! Muh son, muh son’. All I could do was run and grab her from the heat because she was a mother looking for her son at all cost so she was heading back into the yard,” Smith said.
A fire tender showed up some two minutes later and put out the fire. According to the Station Officer Operations Compton Sparman investigations are still ongoing to determine the cause of the fire.
He said the fire station received a call around 11.27 am and responded.
Neighbours on the scene were reluctant to speak to this newspaper as was London. By the time this newspaper arrived on the scene the fire was already out and the woman was said to be resting at a neighbour’s house.
Reports are that London lost everything to the fire. The house was owned by her brother Dexter London.
