Two homeless as fire guts Farnum Land homes

Two people have been left homeless, and a child was treated for smoke inhalation after a mid-day fire swept through Farnum Land, Deacons Road, on Monday, destroying a house and damaging two others.

The pungent scent of smoke lingered in the air as residents gathered, staring at what remained of a home gutted by fire.

By the time Barbados TODAY arrived, the timber house had been reduced to charred framing and debris. A neighbouring house bore extensive fire damage, while a third showed visible scorching along its eaves.

Divisional Officer Tremelle Perch said the Barbados Fire Service received the call at 12.26 pm. Thirteen firefighters from the Bridgetown Port and Bridgetown Fire Stations responded to the blaze with two water tenders and a water tanker. But they arrived to find the structures engulfed.

“One house was completely destroyed, one extensively damaged and one slightly damaged,” Perch said, commending officers for containing the blaze to the affected properties.

Among those affected was Rodney Ifill, whose home was extensively damaged.

“Right now I in shock… I could be in there dead today,” Ifill said, visibly shaken. “I went to work, came back home and lay down and drop asleep. I hear two people calling me saying my house on fire.”

He said his gas had been turned off and insisted there should have been no source of fire inside his home.

“Right now my head hot. Everything burn… everything. Got me hurt… real thing,” he said.

Ifill suggested the fire may have started at a neighbouring property, alleging carelessness, though the cause of the blaze has not been officially determined.

Area MP Chris Gibbs was in Parliament when he began receiving calls alerting him to the fire, he said.

“I was sitting there in Parliament attentively, and I got about three or four WhatsApps and about five calls from my constituents that two houses were on fire,” Gibbs said. “You were elected to serve, and whenever something like this happens, you have to be ready to answer the call.”

Each of the three affected houses had one occupant, leaving two residents displaced, Gibbs said, adding that welfare officials were on site assisting with clothing and food and arranging temporary accommodation while cleanup efforts began. The occupants had lost most of their belongings.

One child from the extensively damaged home was taken to the hospital after experiencing breathing difficulties, the MP said.

“Thankfully, I just heard that he’s okay,” Gibbs said.

The third house, he explained, sustained minor fire damage but was significantly affected by smoke.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.