Sascha Wilson
Three children, including a three-year-old boy, escaped death after their home was set on fire during a domestic dispute on Wednesday.
While no one was injured, the children, their mother, stepfather, brother and aunt are now homeless.
A male relative who is accused of setting the fire is in police custody.
The fire took place at St Croix Road, Princes Town.
Keisha Edwards, 32, a grocery worker, had left her children in the care of her sister and went to work.
Her common-law-husband Michael Maloney also went to work. Edwards lived downstairs with her family, while her sister, brother and a relative lived upstairs the house.
Edwards was told that the relative was beating the sister and chasing her with a cutlass.
She said her sister ran out of the house topless to escape the man. Edwards said her nephew, who was on the outside swing, saw the house smoking and alerted her twin daughters, aged 12.
Her daughter ran out of the house but her son was sleeping upstairs.
“My children say they smelling something and when they do watch the whole house surrounded by fire. So they did not have a choice, they run out. My son was upstairs, they end up leaving my son,” Edwards told Guardian Media
Thanking her neighbour for saving her son’s life, Edwards was grateful that her children were not hurt. However, she said she also felt depressed and sad that everything they owned was destroyed.
“My brother and me, we save we money and do we thing piece by piece. To know I build my whole downstairs, furnish my whole downstairs, me and my common-law husband, we furnish the whole downstairs to make we children comfortable. This had me in a real state. I don’t even think I have tears to cry anymore.”
She had already bought school supplies for her daughters, who attend Asja Girls’ in Barrackpore.
“This is a whole total mess. You know what is to accomplish everything? Everything I had in my house, I had two TVs, I had a proper drawing room, toilet and bath, kitchen, bedroom. I had everything. My poor children’s devices get burn up. My bossman give me a laptop for my children that burn up. I had two tablets for my children, that burn up. Everything just destroyed, I buy my children lil books, I spent $2,500 in their lil books and thing.”
More than anything, however, Edwards wants to be reunited with her family. She is pleading for assistance to rebuild her home.
“Even self we have to sleep on the ground, I just want us to be together and get back a home.”
Anyone willing to assist the family can call 338-2530 or 367-4205.