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BARRETT HALL, St James - The death of two little boys in a fire at Barrett Hall, near Lilliput, and major fire damage to Granville Police Station caused much sadness in the St James communities yesterday.
The little boys, Aden Flowers, age three, and his brother Christopher Flowers, one, had been left alone in the family's one-bedroom, wooden house when fire swept through the humble dwelling.
With tears streaming down her cheeks, Christian Johnson, mother of the children, said she had just gone to a nearby shop to purchase items to prepare a meal for her two little ones when tragedy struck.
"Shortly after mi go to di shop mi hear mi brother-in-law calling me and shouting, "Fire! Fire!" said the grieving Johnson.
She pondered how the house could have caught fire when she made sure that the stove had been turned off and there were no lighters accessible to the children.
"This is unbelievable. The poor little children gone before they get to live any life," a female resident of Barrett Hall said.
Father of the two children who died in the fire, Omar Flowers, alleged that an arsonist was responsible for torching the house which resulted in death of his sons.
"Someone has done it, because there is no way the house could catch a fire. No lighter hanging around the house and no gas on, and nothing like that. The kids dem they [usually] stick to the window; if their mother goes out [the elder one] goes to the window and look out. I know how they operate in the house. The three-year-old always at the window looking out, either making noise or something, and the young baby just is [usually] calm and relaxed; him don't move much. But the other one always a look through the window. Mi sorry him never come through the window and done, but perhaps he went to save his brother," he said.
"From morning me a cry; mi love me two children and mi a tell you it better it was my life dem tek," said the distressed father, who said he makes a living as a landscaper.
"Mi can work hard and buy back any vanity, but mi two child just gone like that. Mi feel it. Mi two pickney dem give me the strength to go out and work," said Flowers.
The St James Division of the Jamaica Fire Brigade reported that about 9:10 am a call was received that a house was on fire in Barrett Hall. Three fire trucks, accompanied by an ambulance, went to the scene, but firefighters said the house had been fully engulfed when they arrived.
Following cooling down operations the charred remains of the two little ones were discovered among the rubble.
In the meantime, the police post in Irwin will temporarily house personnel who were displaced from Granville Police Station which was substantially damaged by a fire during the wee hours of yesterday morning.
Superintendent Vernon Ellis reassured residents that services offered by the police from the Granville facility will be sustained by the police who will now work out of this nearby Irwin location.
"So even though we won't be at this location, our patrols and call for services will still be treated in the Granville area. So, the citizens can rest assured that they will still have effective presence of the police and they will still receive that quality service when they call on us," said Ellis.
No member of the police force was injured in the blaze.
During his 2022-2022 Sectoral Debate presentation in Parliament on Tuesday, Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie said, "The cost of house fires, industrial fires, and other types of fires to the Jamaican economy and society remains very high.
"Last year the fire brigade responded to 13,784 fire calls across the island. Thirty-one people died as a result of fires, 89 were injured, and 1,676 lost their homes or were otherwise displaced. To put this in greater context, over the last five years, there were 62,887 fire calls, 168 people were killed because of fires and 411 people, including 94 firefighters, injured," said the minister.
McKenzie said some 10,826 people had been displaced due to fires since 2016, and called on all Jamaicans to make fire prevention a way of life.
Earlier yesterday morning Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang described the Granville Police Station as very important in the provision of police services to the area.
"It is one of the old stations that ultimately needed to be replaced, but it is a important station, so we will have to find a way to get the police based back up there," said Dr Chang, the deputy prime minister.
Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte, who is also the Member of Parliament for the St James West Central constituency in which Granville in located, said the burnt-out structure needed to be reconstructed.
"The building will need a complete redo. I spoke, before coming here, with our minister of national security and already discussions are underway to move as expeditiously as possible to have the infrastructure done over. Further discussion will take place, and I think in due course Deputy Prime Minister Chang will give some update on that," Malahoo Forte said.
She welcomed the temporary housing of the Granville police at the Irwin post, pointing out that the services offered from the Granville facility are of paramount importance.
"From the report, they were able to save the guns and ammunition; that's very important [because] we really don't want them to explode and cause bigger issues or get into the wrong hands," she remarked.
The fire was extinguished by firefighters from Freeport Fire Station, which responded with two trucks.