‘I wanted to die’ - Father recounts haunting thoughts after hearing his kids died in house fire

Peteroy Harrison wore a despondent look on his face as he turned up at the gates of the Bustamante Hospital for Children (BHC) yesterday. The father of three has been making this daily arduous journey from Mammee Bay, St Ann, by bus since last Thursday when his son Matteo was admitted to the facility.

Matteo, who is one year old, suffered third-degree burns in a fire at their St Ann home eight days ago. Harrison said he left the baby and his two other children -- ages five and three -- in the care of his mother and headed to work. While there he got a phone call that shook him to the core.

"The call that I got was that my kids burn up in the fire and die. I just wanted to die too because I couldn't live without my children. I was wondering where was my mother and if she was dead in the house too. I was wondering if I was going to go to prison. I was crying a lot because I just can't live without my children," the shaken father told THE STAR yesterday.

Harrison, a single father, said his mother travels from St Catherine daily to babysit his children while he is at work. He said that on the day of the incident, she took his five-year-old daughter to school a short distance away. A neighbour was asked to 'give an eye' on Matteo and his three-year-old sibling who were left in the house. A fire broke out shortly afterwards.

Having been given the bone-chilling news about the fire, Harrison immediately left work and headed home. And he expected the worse.

"When I get out the car I was just running towards the fire to lay down beside my children's bodies because if dem dead, it better mi dead too," he said.

Harrison exhaled slightly after neighbours told him that two of his children were safe, but little Matteo was hurt and had been taken to the St Ann's Bay Regional Hospital. He said everything became a blur and he lost consciousness.

"When mi get up back, I rushed to the hospital and when I see my son, I dropped and licked my head in the hospital. When I just see him, he looked like only his face was saved, but when they bring him up to the ward, I see ... he has third-degree burns on his feet and his hand only have blisters," he said.

Matteo is now a patient at the BHC, the country's only specialist paediatric hospital. Doctors told him the child needed a blood transfusion. Harrison has made it his duty to travel to the hospital daily to be close to his son whose road to recovery is not immediately clear.

As he prays for little Matteo's speedy recovery, the worried dad is equally hoping to have a roof over his head once more, having lost his two-room house in last week's blaze.

"Right now is on a bench mi sleep outside. My daughter is with my mother in St Catherine and my other son is with his grandaunt," Harrison said.

"I would like to get back a house. Mi nah pree furniture but mi probably would just want bed and any little thing weh mi can jump back round with. Everything gone and mi would be glad if anyone can just help mi get back on mi feet," Harrison added.

Persons wishing to assist Peteroy Harrison may contact him at (876) 487 5203.