Sin­gle fa­ther Joel Smith has al­ways had the sup­port of his neigh­bours and they came to his res­cue on Sat­ur­day night when a fire de­stroyed his home at North Trace, Table­land.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the fam­i­ly yes­ter­day, Smith and his son were sit­ting among the ru­ins eat­ing a meal from a met­al bowl. De­spite his predica­ment, he was still thank­ful.

“Thank God for my neigh­bours. If it wasn’t for them I would have no food and no place to sleep,” he said.

Re­call­ing the fire, Smith said he went to do an air­con­di­tion­ing job on Sat­ur­day night and took his eight-year-old son. As they re­turned home around 10.40 pm, a neigh­bour ran to­wards them shout­ing that their house was on fire.

“I was in shock. I start­ed to run to the house and it was a big ball of fire. The three mat­tress­es and the whole par­ti­tion were blaz­ing and we couldn’t do any­thing. My neigh­bour used the whole bar­rel of wa­ter but she couldn’t out it. Then I re­al­ized that was not mak­ing sense. The fire was too big,” he said.

Smith said every­thing was re­duced to ash.

“I have noth­ing now. My son is in Sec­ond Year and all his books, uni­form, and every­thing burn. I would ap­pre­ci­ate it if any­one could help. We have noth­ing for me or my son,” he said.

Smith is puz­zled about how the fire start­ed.

“We have no elec­tric­i­ty, no lighter, no cig­a­rette. I have noth­ing. I leave home at sev­en in the morn­ing and come back at sev­en every day. I don’t fight, give trou­ble or tell any­body any­thing. I love my son so I don’t know why this hap­pened or how it hap­pened,” he said.

He ex­plained that sev­en years ago, he and his son moved in­to North Trace. He ad­mit­ted he was un­able to en­roll his child in school at age 5 but he did so a year lat­er.

One of Smith’s neigh­bours, Shenelle Mo­hammed, said he was a de­vot­ed fa­ther. She said some months ago, thieves broke in­to the house and stole his gas tank and oth­er valu­ables and neigh­bours sup­port­ed him be­cause he is a sin­gle fa­ther.

“We are al­ways there for him be­cause he is a sin­gle fa­ther. We iron his son’s school clothes and I pick him up from school, and make sure he has food be­cause his fa­ther has to work,” Mo­hammed said.

She ap­pealed to the pub­lic to as­sist Smith and his son in re­build­ing their home.

Any­one will­ing to as­sist Smith can call Mo­hammed at 339-6075.