Tonight, a family on Sarstoon Street is grieving the loss of 4-year-old Kaylee Flowers after she perished in a fire that swallowed their wooden home.
Flowers, who was a special needs child, had frequently visited the home to be left in the care of either her uncle or her now-deceased grandmother, who passed away almost a year ago.
And this morning when the flames of that fire were kindled in the room where Kaylee slept, her relatives weren't able to save her. Our 7 News team was on the scene this morning and here's what we found out about the unimaginable loss of an innocent. Cherisse Halsall reports:
It was just about 4:00AM this morning when a fire on Sarstoon street claimed the life of 4-year-old Kaylee Flowers. The little girl had been staying with her Uncle while her mother celebrated her birthday. She was put to sleep in the very room where the fire would later start.
This morning at the scene we spoke to one of the young women who was asleep inside the house when the fire got started.
Cherisse Halsall:
"What was the first thing that altered you to the fact that a fire was happening?"
Tedra Brakeman, Cousin Of The Deceased
"The baby, I hurry bawl about the baby because when we came out the girl came out and I asked her first thing where is the baby, she said in the fire and I said Oh my God, I held my head and I was trying to, I tried to do all kind of things."
Cherisse Halsall:
"And at that time there his smoke there's…"
Tedra Brakeman, Cousin Of The Deceased
"Smoke, fire, not jus smoke fir, a lot of fire, the whole room. I tried hard because when the fire caught from in the bathroom the little girl ran out and then she knocked on the door, and then at the same time her brother got up and I got up too and then I asked her where the baby is and she said in the room, and then the fire had already started and I tried to go in but the fire had."
Reporter:
"How fast was that?"
Tedra Brakeman, Cousin Of The Deceased
"Fast, fast, fast you can't even, we couldn't even believe it."
And this morning, neighbors who told us that there'd been a celebration in the now burnt house last night couldn't believe the tragic turn of events.
Richard Slusher, a frequent visitor to the house, says he was shocked to learn that while most of the houses's occupants made it, out they left one of the youngest behind.
Richard Slusher, Neighbor, friend
"If everybody, like grown up, like all of you are grown, you mean to tell me like, you run out and why didn't you leave your baby in there, you grabbed your baby though so, why didn't you remember that your niece was in there."
But he says that the tragedy of this house didn't start last night. Instead it happened a year ago when the family's matriarch fell down dead in Scotia Bank.
Richard Slusher, Neighbor, friend
"It just tore everybody apart and since that like everybody just wasn't the same, you know, like she was the bread winner, she was the bricks that everything together. So, it is kind of rough and it's just rough like everyone misses her because she pushed and pushed, one thing she fought for her picking them like she fought to give them everything."
It's a sentiment with which the wider family agrees, with one aunt this morning expressing the pain that Kaylee's father, currently an inmate at the Kolbe foundation must be feeling.
Lisa Simpson, Relative
"The mother died one year January, now the baby, he has lost his baby so we don't know what will be his outcome back there in prison, so it's just hard for us the family. It's a thirteen year old then two of them is a minor the baby and she."
"Our little niece that is thirteen along with this baby that is four so we can't understand why the rest of adults couldn't help with the baby out of the house."
Cherisse Halsall:
"Now, I understand, you are saying there were adults in the house but these were young adults, nobody in there was 30?"
Lisa Simpson, Relative
"No, nobody in there was 30, all under 30."
In fact, the oldest occupant was just 21.
The baby's aunt says that while they tried to save Kaylee, she claims the child made what would have been a difficult rescue from a burning building impossible.
Cherisse Halsall:
"Your four year old niece was she special needs?"
Tedra Brakeman, Cousin Of The Deceased
"Yes she is special, she is a special child."
Reporter:
"Did your, did the thirteen year old. Did she say if she had difficulties trying to get your niece out because she is special needs."
Tedra Brakeman, Cousin Of The Deceased
"Yup, yup, she said that the baby, when she picked her up she was…thing, fighting her and scraped her or bit or her."
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor
"It's a tragedy, it's always, one of those cases whereby a life is lost and it is out of a fire."
"That investigation is still ongoing, we have only, we are only picking up pieces and it's only from what Mr Fabrizio, I stand to be corrected, only what he is saying, everybody was asleep. He was alerted of the fire, he made an attempt to reach the four year old's room but it was right there that he was stopped because of the fire and the smoke and the heat."
"He took out other family members. It is puzzling as to directly conclude and say what is the cause, there are factors that we can rule out, however, because, from our field of work and our expertise we are not strongly buying into everything that is coming from the family."
"I respect the fact that they are grieving but, however, the information coming from the family seems at this current moment is not as credible as we would want to believe and that is a bit of a hindrance for us."
"The fire department to directly say that this is what caused the fire, like I mentioned our team is still trying to determine the cause however, we can say that the fire originated from the child's bedroom and then spread backward to the bathroom which would represent the front of the house and after that it spread out and up and consumed the balance of the building."
