NIGHT OF HORROR - Fire displaces 80 in Kingston

More than 80 persons were displaced in downtown Kingston on Tuesday night after fire levelled their places of abode.

The fire, which started on Fleet Street, displaced 23 people before spreading to the nearby Tower Street where it destroyed the Good Shepherd Home, which houses more than 60 mentally ill and physically challenged adult males.

Residents believe that the fire was started by a youngster playing with a match, but Emelio Ebanks, public relations officer at the Jamaica Fire Brigade, said they are still investigating the cause of the blaze.

Michelle McLeod said she had to spring into action after one of her daughters woke her and told her that there was a fire.

"Mi see everybody a rush and a crape out, and mi cya crape out because a mi alone, so mi haffi just crape up mi pickney dem and run out," she said.

The 43-year-old mother of four said all the preparations she had made for back to school have gone up in flames.

Mi lose everything

"Mi lose everything, everything bun out, all a mi pickney book dem. Mi buy $6,000 out a hardcover book, and uniform nuh in a it, textbook nuh in a it, everything bun up," she said.

'Mi cya even tell yuh how this set mi back, to how it set mi back not even work mi nuh go this morning, not even a panty mi nuh save," she said.

Geneva Berwwick, a mother of two children, was among those left devastated.

"Mi lose everything fi back to school, only thing I grab is a bag and two likkle clothes. Mi lose everything, back-to-school bag, book, bed, dresser ... everything mi lose!"

Father Richard Ho Lung, whose Missionaries of the Poor operate the Good Shepherd Home, said the residents were "terrified in their eyes" when he got to the facility sometime after 10 p.m. He said that the 60 residents have since been taken to another facility, which now has about 100 people.