At least 30 residents have been displaced following a fire at a rental complex on Gresscott Lane, George Town, off Rock Hole Road on Sunday afternoon.
The fire occurred shortly before 3pm, forcing residents, mostly foreign workers, to flee their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Late Sunday, the Red Cross confirmed it had been contacted by the Department of Children and Family Services and it opened the Red Cross shelter on Huldah Avenue to accept the affected residents.
The Red Cross confirmed that at least 15 people will be staying at the shelter, and it had deployed six shelter managers to stay there overnight.
The remaining residents sought their own accommodation in the aftermath of the fire.
“I was bare feet … I had to borrow my friend’s shoes. I could not save anything,” said a female resident, whose apartment the fire began in.
The distressed woman, who asked that her name not be used, said she lost everything, including her passport and all the money she had.
Her boyfriend, who also requested not to be named, said everything happened so fast.
“We were in the bedroom having lunch when [my girlfriend] said she could feel smoke in the room. We thought the [air conditioning] was sucking smoke from outside and we were smelling it in the room,” he said.
However, they soon found out that was not the case.
He said they took their dishes into the kitchen shortly after his girlfriend turned off the air conditioning unit.
“By the time we were finished, we saw the smoke coming out of the bedroom. We ran in and saw the fire between the ceiling around the A/C,” he said.
At that point fear set in, and he told his girlfriend to run and get help.
Neighbour Francisco Pinellas was alerted by the woman’s frantic screams of “fire, fire somebody help me”.
Pinellas said he ran out of his room and saw the flames. The other residents also ran out of their rooms.
“We came out with buckets of water to try to help … but it was too much fire. So we say ‘Oh, no, no we really have to get out and we forgot about the water. The fire was too much,” he said.
The boyfriend said he tried to grab what he could but was overwhelmed by flames and smoke.
“I grabbed the clothes from near the fire so it would not spread, but it was too hot and I had to run too,” he said.
Pinellas said he was grateful no one was hurt and the entire complex was not destroyed.
He said in five minutes everything was gone.
“I feel sorry for her,” he said.
The Cayman Compass reached out to police and fire officials for details, and await a reply.
Complex not cleared for occupation
When the Compass arrived on the scene, CUC was in the process of disconnecting the electricity to the complex.
Residents, some of whom were allowed to retrieve a few of their possessions, looked on helplessly as fire officials assessed the damage.
“I have nowhere to go,” said one resident, shaking his head as he spoke with the Compass along with his neighbours.
Suitcases and wash baskets stuffed with clothing lay on the front yard of the property as residents waited anxiously for the green light to return to the rooms that were not affected in the blaze.
However, fire officials at the scene told the Compass the property could not be cleared for occupation until the fire investigation was completed and the apartments were deemed safe.
Property owner Prentice Panton arrived on the scene and expressed remorse for the losses.
He said when he purchased the property in 2009, it was a mixed-use for rentals and contained 14 units.
He said the capacity for the complex was around 28 to 30, if people adhered to the two persons per unit rule. However, he admitted there could be more people residing in the complex.
“Thankfully no one was injured, and we’ll deal with the police and the fire department to try to see how we can resolve this as quickly as possible, and hopefully we can find accommodations for the tenants,” he said.
He said in the current market it is quite difficult to find places to rent.
Panton said he will return the month’s rent to all tenants, and deposits to those who want it back to assist in finding alternative accommodations.
Though the complex could be described as a tenement, Panton said he has maintained the property and its present configuration with multiple apartments as it was when he inherited it.
“We just continued it. We bought it as an investment property and try to maintain it and upgrade it over the years,” he said.
Panton said he was looking at nearly $50,000 worth of damage from the fire.
Help from Red Cross
Romellia Welcome, president of the Cayman Kind Action Committee, responded to the fire and worked feverishly to secure the assistance of the Red Cross for the victims.
She contacted Hazard Management Cayman Islands to activate the shelter until they get accommodation.
Saying that the situation was a sad one, Welcome said she was trying to help get a roof over the heads of the displaced residents for the time being.
“The young man from CUC said it will be well over a week without current, so they would need somewhere for at least a week to be able to sleep peacefully and not burnt up in heat,” she said.
Fire officials said when they arrived on the scene, one of the apartments at the front of the complex was already ablaze and smoke and steam were spreading through the roof.
They said the fire was under control within 10 minutes.
Welcome said the blocking of the fire lane at the Marie Martin Primary School, formerly George Town Primary School, has been a problem in that area, and she has reported it multiple times to the police.
The fire took place in a building just behind the school.
“If it so happened that the fire went over to George Town Primary School, the fire truck would not have access to the gate due to the gate being blocked all the time, day and night, with vehicles,” she said.
She said she has reported that situation to the police over years now and no action has been taken.
Sunday’s fire follows a blaze last month on Fern Circle, which reportedly originated from a generator at the tenement’s yard, resulting in the displacement of 23 individuals after the property was condemned by the Planning Department.
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