| All the worldly possessions of a Block 22 Wismar family went up in flames, yesterday afternoon, after a fire of unknown origin completely obliterated their home, leaving in its wake blackened and burnt out shells of various home appliances, including two kerosene stoves and a lantern.The house itself was reduced to what looked like huge chunks of burnt-out firewood!In the aftermath, Kenny Williams, 37, his 30-year-old wife, Onica, and their four children, seven-year-old Zachariah, four-year-old Sampson, three-year-old Kelly Anne and two-year-old Abdool, were all left with just the clothes on their backs.Kenny and Onica Williams who have been married for the past eight years, said that they had only built the flat wooden house about eighteen months ago.According to Kenny Williams, he had left his home yesterday morning to attend a job interview in Georgetown, as he had been unemployed for over a year. He had been tasked with babysitting the children during that time while his wife, Onica, sold clothing at the Mackenzie Market.“Imagine I just leave these children for one day to go and get a job, and look what happen.“I was so happy these people call me for the interview so I went, because I was at home all this time just baby sitting them. But I used to do work on and off with this company on a contract basis.So now with the new place at Christianburg, they call me, and now look what happen. I looking for betterment and instead look what happen. Only the other day I weed up the backyard to start minding some chickens. Now this,” Kenny Williams lamented.According to Onica, she was at work when she received the terrible news. “I catch a car, and call Kenny and we come over right away. I even jump out the car before it stop, but I couldn’t do nothing. Everything did done gone, everything; all we clothes, dem children school books, important papers, marriage certificate,Discount Air Max 720, everthing, all bun up. We ain’t left with nothing,’ Onica Williams said, trying unsuccessfully to fight back the tears.According to the family, the two older children had gone to school while the parents went about their individual businesses with the two younger children accompanying their mother to the market.The fire reportedly started after the two elder children returned home from school shortly after14:00 hrs.“When we come home from school I put on the TV and it start sparking up, and we run outside,” Zachariah Williams said sadly.A neighbour who was alerted called the fire service, but by the time the trucks arrived it was too late as the home had already become a heap of burnt wood.Neighbours complained once more about the absence of a fire station on the Wismar shore, with the result that most, if not all fires on that shore, completely destroy properties.The Fire Service trucks, which have to cross over from Mackenzie, if not too late, more often than not arrive with an inadequate supply of water, and this is compounded by the lack of fire hydrants in most of these areas.Fire trucks scurrying to and fro to source water, while buildings burn, have become a common sight in this town; and not surprisingly, they mostly only succeed in cooling the debris, and neighbouring houses after the conflagration. (Enid Joaquin) |
