Fire devastates GT family yard
(CNS): A major fire in Windsor Park blazed through a house and apartments in a family yard Friday night, leaving 17 people homeless, including several children, aged between one to fourteen years old. The wooden homes were destroyed in a matter of minutes after the fire started at around 9:30pm (24 July). Despite the shocking devastation suffered by the George Town family who own the property and their tenants, a community fundraising initiative kick-started by Matthew Leslie from the Cayman Islands Brewery is underway to help rebuild the homes and the lives of the victims.
Homes destroyed in the fire on the night of Friday 24 July 2015
No members of the family or their tenants were hurt in the fire but at least one firefighter was injured when the building began to collapse as crews beat back the flames, sources tell CNS. Police are assisting fire investigators in the search for the cause of the blaze but it appears that it may have been due to an electrical fault.
Meanwhile, the fundraising effort by Leslie began on Saturday and saw thousands of dollars worth of donations, from food and clothing to cash, pour in to help the residents of the yard, who have lost absolutely everything. On Sunday volunteers were on the scene demolishing what was left of the homes and clearing up the debris from the destructive blaze.
No stranger to immediate community activism to help people in need, Leslie said he was called to the scene of the fire by a friend in the area.
Volunteers help at the sight of the fire the next day
Using his Facebook page and with the help of staff at the brewery and a group of volunteers, he began pulling in the much needed donations. Along with thousands of dollars of food, clothes and household items from individuals, local stores Kirk Market and Cost U Less were among the businesses that also contributed some $3,000 worth of food and food vouchers. He said it took some 15 trucks to move the donations.
“Caymankind starts at home,” Leslie said as he explained the overwhelming support from the community and thanked everyone for helping out. Leslie said dozens of volunteers helped with the clean-up at the site.
Leslie also organised meetings with government, community leaders, the family and the tenants on Monday to find them temporary accommodation and assess what help and support will be required to rebuild their homes. He said a house building fund has started after CIB matched, dollar for dollar, the cash donations that had been made at the weekend.
Anyone who can help in the rebuilding process is asked to contact Leslie via his Facebook page or WhatsApp message via 917-3027
A major cleanup was underway this weekend after fire ripped through the Windsor Park homes
Category: Local News
I hope when they rebuild it is to proper building codes so that this does not happen again. They were very lucky this time.
Great to see the community support at a time like this
Good effort. But where is the public outpouring and assistance for the family in Bodden Town? Did their house burn out too? Need an update on their situation and what help they are getting.
I want to know too.
The Bodden Town family has been in touch with Matthew Leslie and he is planning a major push with them I have been told. So hopefully he will get the response needed to help them because they should not be left out.
Err…. Why does the burned house not appear to be set back in any way from its neighbor? I thought we had set backs required by law, even 20 years ago. Is it not only illegal but dangerous to have such structures so close to others?
In their rebuilding, are they going to apply for planning permission and go through the BCU process and pay all fees and deal with all the bureaucratic nightmares and wait weeks and months for approval to go to the next stage, or does a magic exemption from the laws apply to Caymanians and others of Jamaican origin. Just asking, because the unequal application of our laws, good for some but not for others, is exactly the type of insidious corruption that seems to increasingly pervade, and this tragedy, sadly, is quite possibly an example of the type of thing Legge was complaining about.
How dare you! Rules, laws, good governance, gays, and such like are only for furreners. We can do what we like and get away with it, unless it involves the Yankee dollar being transferred anywhere else. We have lodge pledges to honor and voters to bribe and all that furreners shit just gets in the way of puffectly good business. So just pretend you don’t see any of it and you can stay. A while. If we like you. Or you could join the lodge. Or offer us a deal we can’t refuse, but that may result in a little jail time for you at some point. Good business has a price!!
More seriously, I am sorry, truly, for these families, but if there is any truth in the heresay about no planning permission or codes not met…then they really need to get that sorted. The fire codes and so on may save there lives if it happened again, or even prevent it from happening again
How much cash did the family receive as it is not published. Also, was the box at the site opened that evening with 3rd parties present and the family?
I hope the fire officers, planning inspectors, electrical inspectors, building control officers, and contractors ultimately responsible for this tragedy are held to account.
“Tragedy” is too strong a word.
the comments in the compass sure aren’t very nice
those poor people lost everything cash passports more cash clothes they only escaped with what they had on them jewelry and clothes they even lost their passports good thing they have status
its a nice thing people are stepping up to help the pillars of the community that have contributed to so much especially too the local courts what a shame place burned in only 6 minuets how could that be
Scooby doo where are you
How do you know they have status?
They are born Caymanians but why is that relevant.
Anonymous 7:33pm – I don’t see people ‘not being nice’. I see people wondering how a wafer thin shack was allowed to house human beings. If built properly, it would not go up in flames like a matchstick.
And now that the volunteers have already pulled down what was left, I’m not sure how the fire marshal can find out the cause. Not that it matters too much since there was NO insurance.
Face it Cayman, this is how the other side live. There are so many others…
You do know arson is not always carried out by the homeowner, right?
Well in the other paper the compass they had nothing nice to say about these poor people everything from insinuating it was on purpose to basically they don’t deserver the free ride they are getting now
That is the beauty of free speech you see and say it your way and I see and say it my way
(my way is just correct)
I must have read another compass because I didn’t read all of that.
My only question is this: why isn’t anyone helping the family in Bodden Town whose house burned to the ground? I’m sure that they need help as well.
I thought the something 9:13pm, I haven’t heard anything about helping that family, wonder why? I know I will get plenty of thumbs down, but here goes..where the family in Windsor Park was very lucky, the house was an accident waiting to happen, a tinder shack, now all of a sudden thousands and thousands of dollars are pouring in, concrete house to be rebuilt. The owner I would believe broke quite a few planning laws in the condition of the house. There are wood houses, well made, unfortunately the house that burn down, was a shack. So it is a win win for this family, they will make out more then what they lost. Not all in that house were Caymanian!