Last night, a fire in Ladyville gutted a house leaving a family of five homeless. It happened at around 8pm on Swallow Street when 22 year old Jenna Mckay left home on an errand. No one was at the house at the time and the cause of the fire is said to be a candle which was left on. Reporter Hipolito Novelo found out more.
HIPOLITO NOVELO REPORTING
JENNA MCKAY, Owner of House
“I have nowhere to stay, I have nowhere to go, I have nothing and I started crying and then the thought came to me about where my babies and I will live.”
HIPOLITO NOVELO
“Twenty Two year old Jenna Mckay along with her two children, her sister and her nephew is homeless tonight after this blazing fire destroyed their wooden bungalow home last night. The fire started at around 8 o’clock. The cause of the fire is believed to be a lit candle in one of the bedrooms in the house. “
JENNA MCKAY, Owner of House
“I left the candle lit and the candle knocked over on the bed and caused the fire; I believe that is what caused the fire because no one was at home. I wasn’t taking long; I had gone to my mom to get something for the children to eat and my mom yelled and told me the house is on fire and all my stuff got damaged including my passports, my clothes, my television, everything that a house would have got destroyed. My daughter was with my mom and my baby was with me. I think it was the breeze that knocked over the candle.”
HIPOLITO NOVELO
Mckay’s neighbor, Natasha Williams, was one of the first to realize that the house was on fire, after which she alerted the neighborhood.
NATASHA WILLIAMS, Neighbor
“I heard her screaming but usually we are making noise but the way she screamed you have heard the tone and so I told my gentleman to look out and see what is happening and then he looked and told me that Jenna’s house is on fire. A chill came over me and we ran outside and when I looked the house were enflamed.”
HIPOLITO NOVELO
The Ladyville Fire Department responded to a 911 call but Williams says the fire fighters’ mission was poorly executed. Operations Officer at the Fire Department, Benisford Matura, says they did what they could have done in order to douse the flames.
NATASHA WILLIAMS, Neighbor
“I tried to call the 911 line and it was busy, I couldn’t get through; it took about fifteen, maybe twenty minutes or maybe about an hour to get through and when I did get through an officer barked at me, telling me they heard already and before I could ask if someone is on their way, they hung up the phone on me. When the fire truck finally reached, they took long to reach and they did not have enough water and then someone stated that they heard one of the fire officials say that they didn’t believe that a fire was really going on.”
BENISFORD MATURA, Operations Officer,
“The Fire Service can only respond when we receive the call and when we receive the call it is standing Operating Procedures that within a minute we will leave the station and upon receiving the call that is exactly what happened, within a minute they moved out of the station to the location.”
HIPOLITO NOVELO
“Sir, they are saying that the family is saying that the water tank didn’t have enough water and that you had to make two trips.”
BENISFORD MATURA
“The fire tender that is out there carries 1,250 gallons of water and indeed if that is exhausted we have to find another source of getting water; the water won’t last forever, it’s just a certain amount of time.”
HIPOLITO NOVELO
“Tonight, Mckay and her family are homeless. The fire destroyed ten thousand dollars’ worth of contents and the building valued at thirty thousand dollars. The family only escaped with the clothes on their back.”
JENNA MCKAY, Owner of House
“Well, my personal items were like my passport, my social, my birth paper as well as the one for my brother and my sister and my children; then there was my television, my stove, my gas tank, my bed, my refridge, my clothes; everything got burnt in the house, I couldn’t save anything.”
Mckay is asking the public for assistance. If you are willing to help you can contact her at cell phone number 626-2731. Reporting for Love News, I am Hipolito Novelo.
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