Two days before he was set to retire from the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA), Roger Mahon received the dreadful news that his house had been destroyed by fire.
The blaze completely gutted his house at Proute Road, My Lord’s Hill, St Michael on Wednesday night, leaving him homeless.
The 63-year-old, who has lived in the area his entire life, said he stepped out briefly when he received a call from his son telling him the house was on fire.
Mahon, who retires from the SSA on Friday, said he was in disbelief when he returned to see the blaze.
“My son call me and tell me the house burning, and I rush home cause his phone cut out and I saying this can’t be no sport. I come home, the house blazing there. Three fire trucks were here, two vans of police,” Mahon told Barbados TODAY.
Mahon said he believes the fire may have started from a toaster oven he had left on, something he said he was accustomed doing.
“I don’t know what happened. I got the little toaster oven there, so it got a timer on it so when it done it does turn off. I’m accustomed to using it all the time. It’s the first time this thing ever do this to me,” he lamented.
He said the intensity of the blaze made it impossible to salvage anything.
“Nobody couldn’t go in there to wet in there, not with the amount of fire I see there,” he recalled.
Mahon, who lives alone, said his sons reside in the family home across the street. While his house was destroyed, he said he was relieved that nearby homes were spared major damage.
Roger Mahon
“The green house there with the ac and windows, I still glad the wind didn’t blow you know cause if it did blowing, all dem would have come down. The amount of blaze that this here had,” he said.
A diabetic, Mahon said he now has to visit the polyclinic to replace his medication. He said the incident had left him so shaken he had not eaten since.
He said he has been reassured by both the Barbados Labour Party and Democratic Labour Party candidates for St Michael East that assistance would be provided to help him rebuild.
“[Trevor] Prescod said he would give me a hand, and Mr [Ensley] Granger, he spoke to me last night, cause he went to school with me,” he said.
Divisional officer, Tremelle Perch told Barbados TODAY they received a report of the house fire at 7:39 p.m.
“We responded with three water tenders, two from the Bridgetown Fire Station and one from the Barbados Port Fire station. Under my command, we had station officer Bourne, as well as sub officer Nicholls and 10 other officers who would have responded to the blaze,” Perch said.
“…There has been extensive damage to one house, and two were slightly damaged. I just want to commend the officers in confining this fire to the damage that it really did amount to. The extensively damaged house was destroyed, but the other houses had no interior damage to them.”
Perch also noted that a vehicle parked between the houses sustained damage to its rear windshield and roof.
Neighbour Lionel Brewster, 84, described the incident as frightening and said he was relieved his house only suffered minor damage.
“I never thought something like that would have happened.
“Some board, some glass panes were cracked and the ac unit…You’re living and never expect something to come up so suddenly,” Brewster said.
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