Six persons lost their home to a fire yesterday morning at the Wisroc Housing Scheme, in Linden that was started by children playing with matches.
Mary Moore and her family were the occupants of the Lot 203 Wisroc Housing Scheme three-bedroom house, which caught on fire shortly after 9am. The Linden Fire Department was summoned but by the time it responded the fire had already ravaged the house.
Moore was not at home at the time of the fire, but her 20-year-old daughter Aletia Holder was left there to care for her siblings and her young child.
Two of the children who were interviewed by neighbours after the fire later admitted to playing with matches, which resulted in a bed being set on fire.
Holder was playing marbles in the yard when the fire broke out, according to neighbours. “I hear screaming and when I look out I see the fire coming through the roof,” said a neighbour. “She [Holder] left like she stupid and so we had to hurry up and get the children out the house and try to see what we could save,” another neighbour added.
No one was hurt and neighbours managed to save household appliances and other articles, including a refrigerator, a TV, microwave, a gas bottle, a chair set and some clothes.
Moore’s neighbour Karen McDonald was among those who helped get items out of the house.
She said she had lost her Block 22 home to fire and she knew how it felt to record such a loss.
Neighbours described Moore as a very hardworking woman, who struggled to maintain her family.
