Cops hunt woman who allegedly set home ablaze with her mother, daughter inside
Published:Friday | January 24, 2025 | 12:05 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
A grandmother and her grandchild narrowly escaped serious injuries after their two-bedroom board-and-concrete dwelling in the Downcastle area of Mount Ogle in St Andrew was set on fire early Tuesday morning, allegedly by the child’s mother.
The Gleaner understands that the fire, which started in one room, quickly spread to the other.
“The child was in the other room with her grandmother, and they felt the heat and saw smoke coming and had to run out. They didn’t save anything,” a resident told The Gleaner.
Personnel from the Stony Hill Fire Station, who were summoned to the location some time after 2 a.m., arrived on the scene to find the structure fully engulfed.
The suspect, who the police say appears to be mentally challenged, was, up to yesterday, still being sought by law enforcement.
“Apparently, they were in a dispute from the other day and she tell her mother she a go burn down the house, and she get up and burn it down and don’t even save a suit a clothes for her daughter,” a resident told The Gleaner.
Other residents described the behaviour of the alleged suspect as wicked.
“Is wickedness. A your daughter and mother that. What you leave dem fi do now? Nothing nuh save. The place burn down flat,” a resident said.
Clothing for child
The Gleaner was told that the firemen who responded to the blaze were so moved by the situation that a member of the team provided clothing for the young child.
“The fireman had to leave and come back with clothes to give them because he has a daughter. Is a decent man who is just trying to help out a situation because it’s very bad,” a source close to the situation told The Gleaner.
The police are urging the woman to report to the nearest police station as they continue their probe into the blaze.
The woman is reportedly the mother of two though only one child was living at the home.
Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government and community development, recently outlined that in 2024, twenty-seven people died, 79 people were injured, and 1,600 people lost their homes as a result of fires.
He was speaking on the heels of a deadly house fire in Walkerswood, St Ann, last Sunday in which three children were killed.
A few days earlier, another child perished in a house fire on WhiteHall Avenue in St Andrew.