Eleven people in any house is a crowd – and when that house is a ramshackle wooden structure, it’s an accident waiting to happen. And this morning, that accident happened and it did so with a bang and a thud as the single story structure gave way. I visited shortly after and more than just looking at what happened I went looking for a solution.
Jacqueline Godwin,
“When you heard your house collapsed and knowing that nine of your kids were at home, what went through your mind?”
Arleen Banner, Home Owner
“First thing went through my mind was are they okay. I tried to call back my daughter in law and asked her and no time after that she called me back and the first thing that came to my mouth was are the children okay and she said yes Miss Arleen they are okay. I asked how you, how my sister and she said yes Miss Arleen all of us is okay. And I asked if anybody get hurt and she said no Miss Arleen.”
This is what remains of forty year of Arleen Banner’s five room residence at 32 a Benbow Street in the Queen’s Square division. The wooden structure which was four feet above ground collapsed sometime between eight thirty and nine thirty this morning. As the building buckled, it lurched forward several feet. The front steps that can barely be seen from under the collapsed home - marks the position of where the house stood.
The scene is dramatic as this support post that held up the house ripped through the zinc roof as the building collapsed. Inside, the house looked as if a tornado had ripped through the wooden building, knocking down and breaking everything in its path. Despite the extensive damage it is a miracle that none of the residents were hurt. Nine children ages five to twenty one years old and two adults were at home when it happened. They weren’t injured but they were shaken by the experience.
Denisha Pinto, 12 years old
“It mi feel like one of those earthquakes that were coming.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
“What happened first, did you hear a loud noise and then the house collapsed?”
Denisha Pinto,
“I was coming from getting my clothes to change and I heard my brother drop and when I went in there to go and change, the whole house started to collapse, it looked like the whole roof wanted to drop on me.”
Kingsly Pinto, 10 years old
“I was sleeping on my bed.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
“Did you hear any noise before it fell?”
Kingsly Pinto,
“Yes mam I heard like three noise, like something slammed my brother bed because this bed usually drops. When I looked at it, it didn’t drop the first time I heard boof. Then boof again and it didn’t drop and then boof it didn’t drop, boof it didn’t drop, and the fourth time I heard boof I just see back there fall apart and then back there just buddoooboof and I started to run.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
“What was going through your mind?”
Kingsly Pinto,
“I just think when I dropped off of my bed, I thought the roof was dropping on us.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
“Were you scared?”
Kingsly Pinto,
“No mam.”
Ten year old Kingsly Banner also helped to clear the debris from inside the house including this broken mirror that was totally destroyed along with everything
that was not firmly secured. As Arleen Banner carefully made her way through the destruction inside her home she is still in shock about the extent of damage.
Jacqueline Godwin,
“What is left of your household possessions?”
Arleen Banner,
“I don’t think anything else Miss Jackie but one TV and a small radio. Nothing else, everything else is destroyed in here. As a mother of nine kids it is really depressing for me.”
The homeowner says there were signs over the past two days that foretold today’s event.
Arleen Banner,
“I made lunch and I sit around the table and I told my sister, I said something happened. I said something dropped and she said no, nothing dropped. I said yes Phillipa something dropped. She said no because the house didn’t even shake but I am sitting around the table and so I know the house more than her. But when I came out nothing Miss Jackie, nothing until yesterday evening when I came home one of the poles gave way. One of the poles gave way so me and my son went around the house looking and we said everything else is still standing and he said mommy I will try and put back the pole for you tomorrow because it is right where the TV stand is and he didn’t want anything to happen to the television and he said don’t worry about it because the house will still stand and by the grace of God, he will send his angels to hold it up for us. As you it went this morning. It really couldn’t handle anymore Miss Jackie. It had enough.”
The children along with an aunt and their mom’s daughter-in-law calmly made their way outside.
Jacqueline Godwin,
“Were you scared?”
Denisha Pinto, 12 years old
“Yes mam.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
“Were you scared that one day this would happen?”
Denisha Pinto,
“No mam.”
Arleen Banner,
“I thank the good Lord everybody is okay. A lot of things are broken up but that doesn’t matter me. That is just material stuff, what is important is my children and somewhere for them to stay much better than this now.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
“Any idea where the family will be spending tonight?”
Arleen Banner,
“No I guess we have to stay here for tonight Miss Jackie. Oh yes.
With me I don’t like to beg people. I don’t like to beg people. The only way I’ll do that is if I have to but if I have to stay in here tonight I will. I will stay in here tonight.”
Arleen Banner says it is equally frustrating because she claims that the collapse occurred one year after she first tried to get assistance from government to repair her home but her cries for help fell on deaf ears including former Area Representative Anthony Boots Martinez.
Arleen Banner,
“I would like to ask him personally what happened because he was the one who promised me, ‘yes Miss Banner it is logged in the computer, we will assist you.’ The owner of this property is my kids’ grandmother. We don’t have a problem so I don’t see why should it be a problem for them either. One year all of us asked him for help and he couldn’t do this for me and then say yes Miss Banner I will do it. And no one never ever even put their foot in the yard or by the streetside to say let me see what I can do for her.”
Anthony Boots Martinez, Former Area Representative
“I want to place on record that at no time I held discussions with Miss Banner over building her a new house or home repairs and I don’t think it is a matter speaking that way to have a quarrel. I mentioned the way forward first but I need to place on record, and a next thing, as government, as a Minister, we will never be able to facilitate everything totally that is happening because again it has a cost. Government will not be able to fix everybody or build everybody a new home so that comes with a cost and resources are limited.”
We caught up with Minister of Works Martinez who is also the person in charge of the Southside Alleviation Project. Martinez says while he guarantees that the family’s house will be replaced with a two bedroom 16 x 24 plywood structure, the family will have to meet a certain demand before any new structure can be put in place.
Anthony Boots Martinez,
“As you know Jackie government kicked off with the Venezuelan housing project and as Minister of Works and responsible for the southside project, I haven’t been on site to see the house that fell but I understand a house fell on Benbow Street. But I think as the Minister responsible for the Southside project coordinating with the Prime Minister who is also the Area Representative for Queen’s Square, I think that we can give assurances of a 16 by 24 plycem house in the next couple of weeks. Well of course that will mean also too that the homeowner is responsible to clear the debris and we will be putting up a new structure.”
Boots Martinez says it will be two or three weeks before a replacement structure is installed but that depends on how fast the family moves to clear the land.
