Fiery ordeal

Sixty-four-year-old amputee Lloyd Raymond painted a grim picture of his relentless efforts to escape a fire that gutted his home and killed his relative in Toll Gate, Clarendon on Sunday.

From the hurdles of navigating his wheelchair through the thick smoke that blanketed the four-bedroom dwelling, to a locked grille that compounded the difficulty of his escape, Raymond said it was a traumatising ordeal.

“Mi have one leg, but mi did a fi come out. Mi did a fi jump out. It did sticky in a di house with the wheelchair, but mi affi find a way come out, an all the front grille lock. Mi mattress a burn up, so all mi coulda do a try save myself,” shared a distressed Raymond.

Raymond’s 65-year-old relative, Roy Thompson, who also occupied the house, perished in the blaze while trying to retrieve his belongings.

Investigators believe the incident was caused by arsonists.

Police reports are that, about 2 a.m. on Sunday, the occupants heard a crashing sound in a section of the house. Checks revealed the sound came from a Molotov cocktail (bottle bomb) which immediately engulfed a section of the house.

Both men reportedly escaped the roaring blaze, but Thompson went back inside the burning house in an effort to retrieve some items, when a section on the building collapsed on him.

The police and fire team were summoned to the scene, and Thompson’s partially burned body was retrieved from the rubble.

AWAKENED BY BLAZE

Raymond said he was awakened by the wrath of a burning mattress beneath his skin.

“A the fire wake mi. A the mattress weh mi sleep pan mi see a blaze. Mi never get no sleep, so a in the morning mi sey mi a go get a nap an when mi look, a bottle bomb mi see fling inside,” recounted Raymond.

Raymond emphasised that he was not cognisant of the cause of the attack, stressing, “Mi an nobody nuh have no problem. Man just come an fling bomb through the window and burn the house down, an kill di man in dey, an mi an no man nuh have no problem.”

He rued over Thompson’s decision to return to the blazing house, adding that the now-deceased man had even come to his room to alert him to the fire.

The Gleaner understands that Thompson had left the premises and went to seek his son’s assistance in removing his spouse’s car from the yard, before returning to the house where he met his tragic demise.

“Him come outside with me cause a him pull the grille. When mi see him go back in a [the house] ... all now mi cyaa believe,” said Raymond.

Raymond is also hoping Prime Minister Andrew Holness will hear of his plight and render assistance.

“Only thing mi can do a beg ... whether prime minister or anyone, cause right now, I don’t have nowhere to live. Mi need some assistance yah now. Everything burn up. Nothing nuh leave,” a grief-stricken Raymond told journalists at the scene.

Community pastor and Justice of the Peace Alricka Edwards expressed sadness over the incident and Thompson’s death.

“He’s a gentleman that everybody in the community loves, and he always has a smile or something [kind] to say to somebody. I am confused as to why anyone would want to hurt him or his family,” said Edwards, adding, “We pray whoever did this cruel act will be found and dealt with.”

A friend of Thompson, who gave his name as ‘Popsy’, bemoaned the tragic disruption in their usual Sunday routine.

“Pan Sunday him cook and call mi fi come fi dinner. A mi real real friend. The community lose a real friend. We always a drink together,” said Popsy, adding that unbeknownst to him, he and Thompson had their last drink together on Saturday night.

In January, a 60-year-old disabled man also died in a house fire in the neighbouring York Town community.

olivia.brown@gleanerjm.com