A mother and her four young children are homeless tonight after a fire gutted their home on Racecourse Street. Flames engulfed the two-storey residence at 101 Racecourse Street around 3 pm and within minutes fire engines from both the north and southside stations responded. Our 7NEWS team arrived shortly after.
Keith Swift Reporting, [keithkswift@gmail.com]
By the time our news team got there the firefight was over but the troubles were just beginning for Darlene Whitfield. Not much was left of the lower flat she rented and in fact all she was able to save were here her three shirtless boys.
Darlene Whitfield, Fire Victim
"When I went into my room I smelt smoke and I looked around and I saw the house already on fire in my room. I hollered and asked the neighbors for help and by that time the house which I was renting had no water, they had cut out the water, so the people out there couldn't get any water to help out the fire. So I just got out, me and my kids, and I couldn't save anything. I have four kids, the other one is at school."
Keith Swift,
Can you think of how the fire might have started?
Darlene Whitfield,
"I don't really know. I know in the house I have a lot of extension cords so I don't know if it is the extension cords I have which caused it. I don't know what really caused it."
Emerson Williams, Fire Victim
"I am shaken up right now man."
Emerson Williams' family owns the house and he shared the upstairs flat with an elderly relative.
Emerson Williams,
"I just came and a friend of mine told me that its my aunt's house that's on fire. My uncle is sick, we have to take him to the hospital every month but I went to change his appointment at the hospital and it was there I was coming from."
Keith Swift,
So you weren't gone for long?
Emerson Williams,
"No at all."
Keith Swift,
Can you think of what might have caused the fire?
Emerson Williams,
"No that I know of."
Henry Baizar, Fire Department Chief
"We get the call around 4 minutes after 3 o'clock and we responded from both our Fire Headquarters and from just behind here (Dolphin Street) and we got here quickly, in about two or three minutes the fire truck was here. When the guy arrived here he saw the fire downstairs and it was going through the floor upstairs and the other building behind us starting to catch fire. So they quickly got themselves into operation and started fighting the fire. I think they did an extremely good job because they responded pretty quickly, you see how close these houses are and what not."
A great firefight but that's hardly consolation for a mother and her four boys now homeless.
Darlene Whitfield,
"I don't have anywhere to go and I don't have anything. This is how we came out of the house. Anybody who could give anything or anything I just help for me and my kids."
Fire Department investigators are now working on determining a cause. Meanwhile anyone who can assist Darlene Whitfield can contact her at 207-0487.
