By Shanique Richards
St. Kitts Reporter
A house fire caught the attention of residents at Thompson Street Pond’s Pasture when persons in the area detected smoke and were confused as to where it was coming from.
At around 12:00 a neighbour realized that the house to the front of him had foggy windows and he could barely see past the glass. He went closer, saw that it was smoke and realised that the house was on fire.
He immediately contacted the Fire and Rescue Services who quickly responded to the fire.
“I saw the smoke through the glass windows and all de time for a while I had been smelling something but because I was doing some work in my yard I did not check. When I realized the smoke was inside I called the Fire Department,” said Basil, a next door neighbour.
Ms. Marge, the owner of the home, who was said to be in her 70s, was last seen leaving her home sometime after ten that morning by a neighbour.
The lady makes jawbreakers for a living and according to a member of Fire and Rescue Services, the stove was left on and from the odour, it seems as though she was making jawbreakers. Luckily enough the fire did not get far and the house did not caught afire and the home was vacant.
When the Fire and Rescue team arrived they went to the front door but after realizing that it was locked they tried the back entrance. Neighbours, concerned for the old lady, became impatient and decided that the fire crew was ‘wasting time’ and took the initiative and got a hammer and three strong men broke the door off and kicked it open.
“Dey wasting so much time just to open a door and das why people does dead in house! All they needed to do is break open de door because for all we know a gas tank could blow up any second now,” said the concerned neighbours before grabbing their tools and opening the door themselves.
The Observer spoke to a member of the Fire and Rescue Services who commented on their slow pace.
“We had already realized that the fire was not so serious and that is why we were trying to open the door as carefully as possible. They were wrong for breaking off the door because we know what we are doing,” he said.
The neighbours were happy to know that no one was in the home and had no regrets for breaking the door.
“We will buy Mrs. Marge a new door. We do not have a problem with that because we did all this to make sure that no one was hurt and I think that the fire crew was moving too slowly and a bit unsure of what to do,” said the spokesman for the group of neighbours.
