Family of nine homeless after fire

As he stood staring at the ashes of what was once his fully furnished three-bedroom home, Jason Maragh could not hold back his tears as he realised that his family of nine had nowhere else to sleep.

Still, even in the midst of his despair, the 38-year-old managed to rally his family together to remove all the burned furniture and sweep away the ashes so they could have a clean floor to sleep on.

"Wi lose everything. All a mi papers dem, everything gone right now. Mi nuh know weh fi duh but wi nuh have nuh weh else fi guh suh we just afi tek up weh we can tek up and duh weh wi can duh because a yah suh wi afi guh sleep tonight," Maragh said.

Maragh explained that shortly after 9 a.m., he left his home in Arnett Gardens, south St Andrew, to charge his cell phone because there was no electricity the previous night. But upon his return, he saw smoke and suspected that his home was in danger

"I just see smoke and flames in the air and I said to the young man that I was walking with 'Just go and look for me if is my house burning down', and by mi reach a the corner, him a seh 'Yeh Nardo, come come yuh house a burn down'," Maragh said, adding that he is still struggling to process all he and his family have lost.

"I just feel so empty. I just feel so lost right now," Maragh said.

Maragh's two sisters live with him. One of them has a nine-month-old daughter, while the other, Savanah Smith, is a mother of five children ranging from ages two to 11. Smith was also in a state of shock at the devastating impact of the fire. Despite struggle to speak, she managed to explain to THE STAR that she was home when the fire started.

"Mi deh here sit down and as the light come back the fire start," Smith said, adding that after smelling the smoke, she ran inside to check what was happening. But her two-year-old daughter ran after her.

"When mi see the amount a smoke all me could a duh was grab di baby and run out, that's all mi could a duh," Smith said. She also said that she lost almost everything for her children.

"A September dem fi guh back a school and mi nuh know weh mi aguh duh," Smith said.

Superintendent of the Jamaica Fire Brigade, Valrie Dixon, said that the cause of the fire has not yet been determined.