The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

SEVERAL agencies have already banded together to provide aid to the 20 persons whose lives have been destroyed by a massive fire which left them without several necessities – including identification documents.

Haitian Ambassador Antonio Rodrigue said yesterday many of victims of the Sunday night fire lost their passports, travel documents and other official papers in the blaze, which reduced six homes to charred rubble.

The fire began after 6.30pm at a small Haitian-Bahamian community between Sir Milo Butler Highway and Faith Avenue, reportedly after a kerosene lamp lit a nearby curtain.

The fire then spread rapidly from home to home, completely destroying six houses and damaging several more, nearby.

Fire fighters had the blaze extinguished shortly before 11.30pm. Twelve families were affected but there are no reported injuries.

The Haitian Embassy sent officials to the site in the aftermath of the blaze, Mr Rodrigue said.

“Every time we have something like that, we send some consular officer there to meet the people to bring the support, the comfort, everything. But also to check what they need in terms of papers because most of the time, they lose everything,” he said.

“We try to help them to get their documentations back – passports, records – things like that. We try to expedite that process for them.”

Captain Stephen Russell of NEMA was at the site yesterday and said officials have already begun to compile a list of persons in need of replacement documents.

“Once we produce an official list we will pass it along to the Department of Immigration to do a follow-up check to see their official status and see how they can either replace the documents,” he said.

“It has been done in the past where we replace documents that were destroyed in these types of community fires and we will extend that same courtesy to those people in this area, here.”

As for other items they lost such as clothing, food, water and household items, the Red Cross, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, and the Department of Social Services are lending their support with the latter also providing temporary living accommodations.

As for rebuilding the homes that have been destroyed, Wrensworth Butler of Social Services said: “It’s a difficult situation to ask because basically first of all you need to establish ownership (of the property). But in this case it has to be discussed further with a higher government level.”

Mr Russell added: “An investigation has to be done to see who really owns the property but I cannot honestly say at this time (if homes will be rebuilt).”

“Obviously we are trying to discourage these sort of dwellings. They are just too close, one home caught fire and seven homes have been impacted. It is a government decision to deal with these communities here. We need to try as best as we can to just prevent them from developing anywhere in the country.”

Like Mr Butler and Mr Russell, Ambassador Rodrigue also called on the government to stop such communities from forming.

“We at the Embassy, we try to dissuade the people from doing what is not lawful,” he said. “It’s up the government of the Bahamas to enforce the law,” he said.

One man, Walner Petit-Frere, who lives in the community, told the press government officials had visited the site in the past.

He added: “I don’t think they’re going to rebuild. Immigration came in the yard on November 1 and they catch about 23 people.

“I think they’re about to break down this yard because this is Crown land and ain’t nobody have no say, no one is collecting any money. So they have to break down this yard – like the other yards.”