Sixth Form student Jerlon Anderson, who spent most of her Tuesday night at her home studying and writing notes in preparation for her Cape examinations left home for school yesterday as usual only to receive tragic news that her house was on fire.
However, by the time Jerlon got there at Fort George Road, St James, her home was completely destroyed by the fire, along with her study notes, textbooks and uniforms.
Standing in tears, she watched fire officers from the Wrightson Road Fire Station battle with the blaze, as another relative, a mother of two who was at home when the fire broke out, was inconsolable. The incident occurred at about 11.30 am.
In an interview, head of the household Brian Anderson, 48, said nine of them including three children – Matthew Anderson, two, and his three-year-old brother Anthony and their seven-year-old cousin – are now homeless. The seven-year-old is a pupil of Mucurapo Boys' Primary School while Matthew and his younger brother attend a nursery.
"I have to try now to get somewhere to stay the night as we have nowhere to go. Imagine the children are at school and would be thinking they are coming home when they are picked up, when this time they have no home to come to," said a distraught Anderson.
Anderson said the cause of the fire was yet to be determined.
"We really don't know what happened and what caused the fire. I was told by my relative that she smelt smoke."She said she looked out of the window and saw smoke coming out from under the house. By the time she went outside to have a closer look she saw the fire under the house.
"She tried to run back in to try to save clothes but could not make it in time as within seconds the entire house was on fire. Had she gone in there she may not have made it out alive.
"All our electrical wires are on our ceiling and the fire did not start from there so how it started is a mystery to us but thank God for life though. It is very hard to start all over again having lost everything," Anderson added.Jerlon, 18, a student at Sixth Form student, said she would be sitting her CAPE exams in May/June.
"I am expected to write biology, pure mathematics, French and communication studies and all my notes and my books and textbooks burn up. Everything gone," Jerlon said as she wiped away her tears.
Anderson made a desperate plea to members of the public who could assist them, to contact them at 796-2360, 322-4449, 374-3868 or 715-5369.
