Delmour Harrison had to watch on Friday morning as the Harlington, St Philip house in which her mother lived before her death three weeks ago was destroyed by fire.
Harrison, who lives next door to the two-bedroom wooden structure, told Barbados TODAY that she was in bed around 5 a.m. when she heard someone shouting to enquire whether anyone was in the house.
When she looked through her bedroom window, she saw flames coming from the unoccupied house.
“I tried to call the fire station but I could not remember the number. I could not get it dialed or anything. So I just run down the gap and tell them call the fire station. I woke up my son and tell him to call the fire station,” Harrison said.
“He [her 18-year-old son] was crying and all of that because he want to know why all of these things happening, because we buried my mother three weeks ago today.
“On the 1st of July we buried my mother, now he can’t understand why all of these things happening. We just buried her so it is a double whammy,” a tearful Harrison said.
She added that she was not able to save any of the house’s contents.
“It [the fire] was to the front and the door that I would have opened was by the living room, and I did not know how far it was so I did not want to take that chance,” she explained.
Harrison said family, neighbours, and church members had rushed to her side to support her, while a representative from the office of Member of Parliament for St Philip West Kay McConney had also paid her a visit.
“Kay McConney’s representative asked me if I want any help but right now I cannot think, I cannot wrap my mind around anything right now. Right now, I am not thinking straight,” the distraught woman said.
An upstairs window at Harrison’s house was damaged as a result of the fire. (AH)