The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

NEARLY five months after six lives were lost in a fire at a New Providence inner city community, police have very little to say about the results of their investigations.

Five adults and one toddler, all relatives, burned to death in a small four-room structure at Homestead Street in the early hours of Monday, September 23, 2013.

With very little details publicly released by authorities, The Tribune has sought answers for months from police spokesman Superintendent Stephen Dean and Fire Services Chief Walter Evans.

However, both senior officers directed The Tribune to put all questions about the investigation to Royal Bahamas Police Force executives.

Yesterday, Assistant Commissioner of Police Anthony Ferguson said the case remains classified as a house fire.

He said: “Eventually, we will send the files of the six persons who perished to the coroner. And unless something else turns up otherwise, house fire remains as the classification.”

Loved ones of the victims - 52-year-old Marilyn Barrett, Unissa Pratt, 23, 22-year-old Jennifer Bisphaint and her daughter Joashinique King, 2, Trayvon Grant, 16, and Melchizedek Bain - have questioned whether arson was to blame for the tragedy as five adults were unable to find their way out of the home as it smouldered in flames.

Eyewitnesses said they heard screams and cries for help as a neighbour attempted to save those inside. But his efforts were unsuccessful.

While inside, authorities said the victims attempted to escape through the front door of the house, but flames prevented them from exiting.

They then attempted to get out through the back door of the structure, but that effort was made impossible because a fridge was blocking the exit, a police source told The Tribune. The victims were all founded huddled inside the small bathroom of the house.

Authorities at the time of the blaze believed the family had been trying to escape through the window which had iron burglar bars.