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A fire in the Collet area early this morning completely destroyed a house and scorched two adjacent structures. For the family of 17 it is a devastating event because they lost everything – including their shelter. They told us how the fire sprung up when they were sleeping:

Courtney Weatherberne Reporting…

This bit of charred rubble used to be a house which was sheltering 4 people. Beside it, is another family home which used to shelter 13 more people, including young children all the way down to a 2 month-old baby.But, a fire late last night destroyed them both, and almost spread to the two other houses in the yard.

Linton Maskall Sr. - Fire Victim

"It took place probably after 11 and I leaved to go buy some food and on my way back I saw the blaze and I ran, dropped the food and came to see what I could do to assists. I knew that my sister lived upstairs by my mother's house and she has 9 kids and I have a nice who has a 3 month kid too. All of them get affected by this you know."

Neshia Baptist - Fire Victim

"We live in this green house when the house caught fire because the other house was already on fire. I got up to nurse my baby, when I felt the heat came in and I opened the window to see the fire and I went to wake everybody"

Luckily, the Fire Department arrived and got it under control. Unfortunately, there wasn't much they could do to save the other 2 houses.

Courtney Weatherberne

"It seems like everything in your house got destroyed."

Linton Maskall Sr.

"Everything, nothing saved, nothing at all."

Courtney Weatherberne

"How would you assess the damage in terms of money, how much you think you lost with this fire?"

Linton Maskall Sr.

"I guess the house value alone is 22 thousand and the electronics over a thousand. They all went up in flames."

Neshia Baptist

"We couldn't have saved anything, everything got burned. My baby is only 2 months, all of us that live in the house are single, lone single parents."

The house is worth $22,000 thousand dollars. Maskall says he and his family will have to move in with other family members. If you would like to help the family you can call 6318071.