A devastating early morning fire has left a family in mourning after a six-month-old baby died when flames destroyed their home in Anchovy, St. James, on Tuesday. The infant, identified as Nymerah Graham, was reportedly inside the family’s three-bedroom wooden house along Guinep Tree Lane when the blaze broke out sometime after 1:00 a.m.
Reports indicate that Nymerah, four of her siblings, and their father were all inside the house at the time of the incident. When they became aware of the fire, the father immediately began to evacuate the children from the burning structure. According to Nymerah’s grieving mother, the father managed to get the other children out by passing them through the window, but the flames intensified before he could reach the infant.
Overcome with emotion, the distraught mother of six said the situation unfolded quickly, and the family was powerless to save the baby. “The father was there with the rest of the kids. He said he threw them through the window, and by the time it reached the baby, he couldn’t reach the baby…it was just rough,” the mother told TVJ News. Among the four siblings who escaped the fire was a 17-year-old boy. He sustained burns during the incident and was later taken to the hospital for treatment.
When the fire swept through the home on Tuesday morning, the children’s mother was at the hospital. She stayed at the facility overnight with another son who suffers from diabetes and required medical care. Monday night was one of many nights she had spent at the hospital, but she never imagined that she would be coming home to find one of her children dead and their house destroyed.
The tragedy has left many residents shaken, particularly those who had interacted with the infant. One neighbour, who often babysat Nymerah, recalled caring for the baby the previous day. She said the father collected the infant on Monday evening, and she went to bed, only to wake up this morning to the horrifying news.
Firefighters from the Jamaica Fire Brigade responded to the fire with two units from the Barnard Street Fire Station. The firefighters experienced some difficulty when trying to access the property due to the hilly terrain. The home was completely engulfed when they arrived on the scene. After extinguishing the fire, Nymerah’s remains were discovered, and she was pronounced dead. Authorities are probing the cause of the fire.
