San Juan home, business destroyed by fire

FOUR people are now without a home and business after a San Juan fire destroyed the two on the night of January 14.

Just after its usual 7 pm closing time, Bernadette McKie, owner of Bernie's Brewery (bar) at the corner of Concord Road and Saddle Road, San Juan, was alerted to the fire.

She said, "I was just packing the freezers because I had just closed the bar. Now, my daughter and her companion live upstairs, and I heard someone saying the roof is on fire.

"I live downstairs, inside the bar.

"My daughter's companion was playing (video) games, when he said he started to feel a heat in the room. When he opened the bedroom door he realised it was a fire in the roof, but I don't think anyone understood what he was saying at the time. It was when we saw the fire raging over his back that we realised what was going on."

"He then broke the louveres and jumped out (the first-floor window)."

McKie said the man jumped on to one of the large umbrellas outside the bar and it broke his fall, so he escaped serious injury.

"He just have a limp now. I told him to go to the hospital and get treatment, but you know how men are.

"My daughter's little finger got damaged when she was pounding the gate, trying to get it unlocked to get the car out of the yard. She successfully got it out before the fire got terrible."

McKie said her family would stay with a relative and a neighbour for the time being.

"Wow! I lost thousands of dollars but God is good."

She said she was pleased with the response from government representatives who visited the site.

"The government responded very quickly. Disaster management from the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation came and they gave us mattresses, food vouchers and water."

She said fire officers also came and did an assessment of the building.

"We would then take their report (and) go to social development to get assistance. The Ministry of Social Development (and Family Services) wanted an estimate of our loss and directed us to different grants, clothing and other things.

"The police Victim and Witness Support Unit also contacted us. They said they also help in cases like ours."