A quick response by neighbours early on Friday morning saved four children from a fire that ripped through the bottom flat of their home at Supply, Mahaica.
According to Steven McCurdy, around 12 am, a fire started in the lower flat of his sister’s two-storey wooden home at Supply, Mahaica, where his nieces and nephews were asleep at the time. He said that the fire was reportedly started after his 15-year-old nephew lit a candle and it was left burning throughout Thursday night.
“You see, is normal for them to light candles because we don’t have light and we never did. So is the candle he light and left, and it musse bun down and ketch, and that’s how the whole thing started,” he said.
Recalling the harrowing events to Stabroek News, the man explained that he was awakened abruptly from his sleep by his wife yelling for him.
“I wake up from she calling and shouting, and when I jump out me sleep I see smoke coming from the house and people hollering, so I rush out,” McCurdy, who lives with his mother in another house that is several feet away from his sister’s, said.
He explained that as soon as he ran out of the house, the only thing that he was thinking of was saving the children. “When I reach the house and see all the smoke and fire, all I de thinking about was them so I jump through the window into the fire and I start looking fuh them. But is after I realise that three of them de done get saved by the neighbour them, and only one of them went left upstairs,” McCurdy recalled.
McCurdy said that after he realised that only one child was left in the house, he escaped through the window and made his way up the stairs, then he climbed through another window into the upper flat. After he stormed into the upper level, he was able to find the fourth child and they made their escape without sustaining any severe injuries.
After the rescue of the children from the burning house, McCurdy explained that he, along with several neighbours, rounded up buckets and went to the nearby trench for water. They used the trench water to extinguish the fire in the lower flat and to douse the exterior of the house.
Their valiant efforts were responsible for containing the fire to the bottom flat, which was destroyed, while saving the upper level and the structure of the home.
‘Help’
However, the flat that the family of five once called home is now uninhabitable in its current state.
“The entire bottom flat destroy, completely. Everything gone, gone. Everything bun up and destroy. All they clothes, all the mattress, everything that was inside there along with some money gone. They don’t have anything now and even though the upstairs didn’t get damage much, the floor you can barely walk on. The fire ketch the floor and now it fragile and would break under any pressure, so is the whole place got to do back,” McCurdy explained.
According to the man, his family, is poor and as a result they are seeking assistance from anyone who might be willing to help them.
“Is four children and the mother. The mother [Allison McCurdy] does work hard. She does sell mangoes and brooms till up in Linden and she got the 16-year-old daughter [who] got exams to write next year and all she books and clothes and everything bun up,” McCurdy said, while stating that the family is extremely happy and thankful that none of the children or anyone else was injured, but they are in desperate need of help to recover from the loss.
“I got some small burns about me body and last night I fall down while running and I thought me belly rip but it good. I got a cold now because of the heat and water and all of that, but everybody’s fine and that’s all that matters but we need some help. The mother is a hustler and she work hard for everything and now it’s all gone,” McCurdy noted.
Anyone willing to offer the McCurdy family assistance with rebuilding their lives can contact them on telephone numbers 675-7868 or 644-5534.
