BASSETERRES, St. Kitts – A mid-morning fire totally destroyed a house in Conaree yesterday (Nov. 14), leaving homeless a family of 10, including a number of young children.
Derrick Warner, owner of a five-house property in Poland, Conaree, said he was at work when he received a telephone call that there was a fire in the village where he lives.
“Immediately upon receipt of the call I had a feeling that it was my property. I don’t know what generated this feeling, but my mind suggested it was my property. However, I am still at a loss to know what caused it.”
On arrival at the scene, SKNVibes saw one building was completed engulfed in flames and two sections of firefighters from the Fire and Rescue Services were desperately trying to extinguish the flames and, at the same time, contain the fire from spreading to an unoccupied building to the south and another to the east. Neighbours were also seen with garden hoses rendering assistance.
Attempts were made to find out the origin of the fire from one of the female occupants of the house, but she was too distraught to speak. Everything in the house was destroyed.
Cousin of the property owner, Clyde Lewis, was the individual who had notified the Basseterre Fire Department of the incident but claims that he has some reservations concerning the manner in which they went about fighting the fire.
“At about 9:10 this morning while on my way to work I heard somebody was shouting fire. I stopped, and when I looked up I saw smoke coming from my cousin’s property. I immediately took out my phone and dialed 911 but did not get a response until the second call.
“They responded very quickly, but they did not approach their task as is expected of professionals. They arrived in three vehicles; a small fire truck, a large one and an ambulance. However, the ambulance was parked directly in front of the burning house and was placed directly between the two fire trucks. Therefore, if someone was a victim of the fire and had to be transported immediately to the hospital, they might have died because the ambulance was boxed in and the street is very narrow.
“Even though the street is narrow, the firemen, on arrival, should have stopped the large truck below the hill and run towards the buildings with the hose. By doing this, they would have done a better job; however, kudos to them in saving the other houses in the yard.”
Speaking with Deputy Chief Fire Officer James Warner, he told this media house that every officer who was on the scene was highly trained and went about their task in a professional manner.
He explained that when they received the call of fire, the trucks and ambulance immediately departed for the scene, but all the vehicles did not used the same route on reaching Conaree. While the large fire tender approached the building from the northern entrance of the street, the smaller one and the ambulance approached it from the southern direction.
With regards to Lewis’ opinion, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer said it was highly improbable for his men to effectively carry out their task with the trucks not being close to the burning building.
He further explained that for every 75-100 feet of hose there would be a frictional loss of five to 10 pounds of water pressure. “Our aim was to get as close as possible in order to pump 75 pounds per square inch of water, which is our minimum effective operating pressure. Therefore, the complainant does not have any idea of how fire fighting is done professionally, for we could not have effectively extinguished the flames as we did if the trucks were parked below the hill.”
The Deputy Chief Fire Officer informed this media house that the cause of the fire could not have been ascertained at the time, but such information would be made following investigations.
