20 people left homeless after Ste Madeleine fire

Homeowners Donna Coombs-Smith and Christopher Smith with their twin granddaughters Waynika (left) and Waynisha Hosten at the site of their home which was destroyed by fire on Thursday.
Homeowners Donna Coombs-Smith and Christopher Smith with their twin granddaughters Waynika (left) and Waynisha Hosten at the site of their home which was destroyed by fire on Thursday.

UPDATE:

CRADLING her sleeping granddaughter as she looked on at the still smoldering remains of her home yesterday, Donna Coombs-Smith appealed to Housing Minister Randall Mitchell for help.

Coombs-Smith, 58, said her family is desperate after fire destroyed the three houses they lived in at Cipero Railway Line, Ste Madeleine on Thursday. A total of 20 people, including nine children are homeless. Coombs-Smith, the family’s matriarch, said the fire started in a bedroom in her house shortly after 11am on Thursday. Within minutes, the two-bedroom wooden structure was burnt to the ground and the flames quickly spread to the two other houses.

The fire also damaged the home of neighbour Irene Valentine, burning through a wall and causing her glass windows to shatter. Valentine, 63, was burnt on her back, shoulders and arms as she ran out of her house in fear.

The families lost all their belongings and, yesterday, Coombs-Smith made an appeal to Mitchell who is also MP for San Fernando East.

“When it was time to vote in the last election, I stained my finger for him,” she said.

“I made sure all my children and grandchildren voted for him…now where is he? Look at my plight, we have babies who lost down to the bottle they drink milk in, we need your help.” Coombs-Smith said it is through the generosity of neighbours that the children are being fed.

“A neighbour gave us two baby bottles and some milk so we could feed the children something. We have nothing now and we need the help.”

She said all the members of her family have been split up as they try to find shelter for the night.

“It is plenty of us, we can’t all go by the same people. And even though people helping us now to get a little place to sleep, we can’t stay by them forever...it will start to have problems and that is where the minister needs to come in and support the people who support him.”

As she spoke, her granddaughter Wanisha Hustin, three, was lifted from her arms by a neighbour and placed on the neighbour’s bed to rest.

“Right now, the little food, water and clothes we getting is because we have good neighbours to trying to lend a helping hand. If they didn’t help us, I don’t know where we would have gone or what we would have done.”

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined and Coombs-Smith could not estimate the value of her losses.

Non-governmental organisation Hope for Life Foundation president Zahir Ali said the group will visit the family in the coming days to try to offer any assistance possible.

ORIGINAL STORY

Twenty people, including nine children, are homeless after a fire destroyed three houses on the same compound in Ste Madeleine on Thursday.

Donna Coombs-Smith, the family’s matriarch, said the fire started in a bedroom in her house shortly after 11am on Thursday. Within minutes, the two bedroom wooden house was burnt to the ground and the flames quickly spread to the two other houses located at Cipero Railway Line, Ste Madeline.

The fire also damaged the home of neighbour Irene Valentine, burning through a wall and causing her glass windows to shatter. Valentine, 63, was burned on her back, shoulders and arms as she ran out of her house in fear.

The families lost all their belongings and this morning, Coombs-Smith made an appeal to Housing Minister and San Fernando East MP Randall Mitchell to assist them.

“When it was time to vote in the last election, I stained my finger for him, I made sure all my children and grandchildren voted for him…now where is he?” she asked. “Look at my plight, we have babies who lost down to the bottle they drink milk in, we need your help.”

Cradling her one of her three-year-old twin granddaughters, Coombs-Smith said it is through the generosity of neighbours that the children are being fed.

“A neighbour gave us two baby bottles and some milk, so we could feed the children something. We have nothing now and we need the help.”

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

Comments

"20 people left homeless after Ste Madeleine fire"

More in this section