THERE is tension in Kingston Central Police Division following Thursday’s firebombing of three premises at 33, 33 1/4 and 33 1/2 Rum Lane, leaving roughly 30 people, including more than 13 children and a national netballer, homeless while another 17 were burnt out in an apparent reprisal, as the Darksyde and Gennasyde gang feud, which previously appeared to be on pause, is apparently heating up again.
That first incident occurred approximately 12:00 am on Rum Lane. About an hour and a half later, in what appeared to be a reprisal for what had happened earlier on Rum Lane, a premises at 6 Rosemary Lane was set on fire, displacing 17 people, including eight children, close to next month’s start of the new school year.
In what is believed to have been another act of reprisal, there was an attempt to torch a premises nearby at 12 Foster Lane. Luckily, quick response from residents prevented that fire from igniting anything substantial. However, residents there claimed that a message was sent that the arsonists will be back soon to “flatten everything”.
One victim of the fire on Rum Lane said it was the screams from a child at approximately 12:00 am which alerted her to danger.
“We just heard the child saying, ‘Daddy, fire, fire, fire.’ By the time I ran out, I see a man throwing water from a bottle in the fire. From there, everything blaze up. We had to run and jump over the back wall. I saw a lady fall three times and she cut her foot. One man cut up. I had to climb on that bench at the back of the yard to go over on Hanover Street, which is the the street behind our yard.
“We had nowhere else to exit but at the back. We lost refrigerators, beds, and every furniture burn up as well as clothes and everything. We didn’t save anything. Even the shop right there burn down, flat, flat, flat. They are burning down the houses of innocent people. On my side there are 14 people, including six children; among the children is a six-week-old baby, there is also an unborn child in the belly. That babymother fell two times when she was trying to go up that wall. Even the pigeons burn up,” the victim said.
She added: “Everything for back-to-school got burned; there is no birth certificates and no passports. I purchased everything for my children’s back-to-school and everything burn up. They wanted us to burn up in the fire. All this happened right after heavy rains had just ended.”
National netballer Latanya Wilson told the Jamaica Observer that she lost almost everything in the fire, including the bronze medal she won with the Sunshine Girls at the Netball World Cup tournament earlier this month in Cape Town, South Africa.
“I have several different emotions. I am sad but I am moreso grateful that I still have life. It is always a privilege to represent my country, myself, and my family — the joy from that is unexplainable. This just goes to show that you can be at your highest point in life and the next moment you are at your lowest,” Wilson told the Observer.
“There are around five houses in my yard with 15 people, including seven children. Luckily I managed to save my passport and laptop; I will be good to travel. And in terms of school and the laptop, I will be fine. I am currently studying business at The Mico [College] University. I am a fourth-year student, pursuing business,” Wilson added.
Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia “Babsy” Grange, who is at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, sent her best wishes to Wilson and her family on Thursday.
Sandra Dick, another Rum Lane resident who got burned out, said she was traumatised.
“Mi feel like part of mi dead and part alive. It is bad. We bought everything for back-to-school and everything gone down the drain. It is disturbing.”
At the premises torched on Rosemary Lane one woman wondered whether the people committing these acts have loved ones
“I wonder if they have sense. If you don’t want people to hurt your family, why hurt someone else’s family? A lack of love is the cause of this, and badmind; there wasn’t any war going on. After 2:00 am the person in whose house the fire start came out shouting that they threw gas in his house and a bottle with fire. When we realise seh we have little water we started to throw it, but it never mek sense. The more we throw water, the more the fire escalate.
“When the fire truck came, one of the firefighter said they didn’t have enough water because they were just putting out a fire on Rum Lane. When they left for more water they came back and saw that the fire had spread, and we lose everything. We are just making time take its course,” the woman said.
None of the people impacted could understand why they were targeted as they claimed no gunmen live among them.
Glendale Murdock, the deputy superintendent (DSP) in charge of operations for the Kingston Central Police Division, has appealed to residents to cooperate and give information to the police so as to bring an end to the violence.
“In the last four weeks we have seen some activity on the ground where we had shooting and a murder; before that we had some amount of peace in the community. We have some information as it relates to the genesis of these activities and we have been reaching out to specific people to cooperate. The problem is that both sides are armed and they think that they can deal with the situation themselves [but it is] their families [who] oftentimes suffer the loss.
“There are some who have a lot of reluctance to pass on the information. There are people who trust us and cooperate, but others are reluctant. They themselves may have loved ones in crime. We have several persons of interest. We suspect there will be reprisals so the police are on the ground,” the DSP said.
