Sascha Wil­son

Ten peo­ple in­clud­ing two chil­dren are home­less af­ter a fire de­stroyed two hous­es and a small busi­ness at Bayshore, Mara­bel­la. Lynette James, 49, her two chil­dren, ages 29 and 22, her hus­band, her 65-year old moth­er and two grand­chil­dren, six and 11 years old, lived in one of the hous­es.

Ju­nior John, his wife and adult daugh­ter lived in the oth­er house. 

Mean­while Ala­nis Alexan­der, 24, who op­er­at­ed a small food busi­ness next door al­so lost her busi­ness.  Res­i­dents sus­pect that ca­ble thieves may have be re­spon­si­ble for the fire which may have been trig­gered by an elec­tri­cal is­sue. James, a URP check­er re­called that some­time af­ter 1 am her daugh­ter, Lakeisha, 29, got up to give her six-year-old son med­ica­tion and saw the sparks on the elec­tric­i­ty pole.

They then saw their neigh­bour's house in flames. James said they had no time to save any­thing as the fire had al­ready spread to their roof. By the time the fire brigade ar­rived the homes and busi­ness place were al­ready en­gulfed in flames.

While in­ves­ti­ga­tions are still on­go­ing in­to the cause of the blaze, James said peo­ple have been cut­ting ca­bles near her home and she sus­pects that may have caused the fire.

 In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.