A family of 12 is now homeless after a midmorning blaze yesterday consumed their Buxton home.
Patricia McCaddy, 50; Morissa McLean; her brother and sister; and six children lived at their upper flat house in Buxton Backdam. “I was sleeping and I wake up around 11:30 to a lot of noise in the house and when I run outside the bedroom I see the wood on fire and I didn’t have any other choice but to gather the children and run outside,” McLean told Stabroek News yesterday. She said, after she ran outside she was told that one of the children was playing with matches on the bed which subsequently caught afire.
“We couldn’t do anything because it just went up so fast. The whole mattress was afire when I see it and then in an instant the wood them start catching and it just start burning,” the devastated woman added. She said the house was completely engulfed in flames in about 10 minutes and the fire service took about 30 minutes to come. “It was too late either way. By the time they come everything was gone and we couldn’t save anything,” she said. McLean related that when the fire truck did arrive, firemen had problems getting water and as a result were not able to help the situation, which was already as bad as it could’ve gotten.
McCaddy who was not at home at the time of the incident explained that she had only recently refurbished the house. “It was only the other day that I do over the entire flooring and the walls too,” she said, stating that several millions were lost in the blaze as they were unable to save anything. “They couldn’t take anything. Everything is gone. The television, the furniture, even all the cellular phones are gone,” she added.
Most of the relatives have dispersed to other family members where they will stay until they can rebuild the house.
