Tragedy in JAMAICA! Fire destroys Wortley Home for girls leaving 21 young female wards of the State, ages 7-18, and the home's administrators in distress.

KIMMO MATTHEWS Observer staff reporter mattthewsk@jamaicaobserver.com  Tuesday, June 30, 2015    
FIRE yesterday destroyed a large section of the 97-year-old Wortley Home on Constant Spring Road in Kingston, leaving 21 young female wards of the State, ages 7-18, and the home's administrators in distress.
01
Firemen extinguish fire
Police report that about 11:30 am persons passing the area saw smoke coming from one of the dormitories and raised an alarm.
Firefighters said seven units responded to the blaze, which took them more than two hours to control.
The units, according to the firefighters, came from the nearby Half-Way-Tree Fire Station, as well as from Rollington Town, York Park, and Trench Town -- all located more than 20 minutes drive away.
"We got the call a few minutes after 11:30 am and we reached at the location as quickly as possible," one firefighter told the Jamaica Observer.
Front cover of today's paper
Tragedy
Help also came from people living in nearby communities, but despite their efforts the majority of the building was gutted.
One female ward, who had just returned from school to find the place on fire, was distraught.
"When I was at school I saw the smoke and joked to my friend: 'Yuh nuh si seh a wi house a burn down'," she told the Observer with tears rolling down her cheeks.
Manager at the home, Dolores Bailey, was equally distraught, saying that it was a sad day for the institution, which was founded in 1918 by the Rev Canon Wortley, who was then rector of St Andrew Parish Church, and his wife Bertha. It caters to needy girls, regardless of socio-economic or religious backgrounds, and is one of three children's homes operated by the Anglican Church in Jamaica. more

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ANOTHER RACIST POLITICIAN ? Republican Gene Alday, Mississippi Lawmaker, Says Blacks Don't Work And Get 'Crazy Welfare Checks' ...The State Rep. says he was against increased funding for education, in particular funding to improve literacy...Alday also told the newspaper about a time he visited an emergency room. “I liked to died. I laid in there for hours because they (black people) were in there being treated for gunshots," Alday was quoted as saying.

Image
The Huffington Post  |  By Ed Mazza Email Posted: 02/17/2015 1:59 am EST  A Mississippi lawmaker says racist comments recently attributed to him  were taken out of context  and supposed to be off the record. State Rep. Gene Alday, a Republican says racist comments State Rep. Gene Alday, a Republican, told The Clarion-Ledger he was against increased funding for education, in particular funding to improve literacy. During his explanation, Alday said he comes " from a town where all the blacks are getting food stamps and what I call 'welfare crazy checks .' They don't work." Alday also told the newspaper about a time he visited an emergency room.  “I liked to died. I laid in there for hours because they (black people) were in there being treated for gunshots," Alday was quoted as saying.  Alday didn't deny the comments attributed to him. However, he said he was not a racist. " I am definitely not a racist, at all ," Alday told Missis...
Read more

MATH PUZZLE : Here's The Answer To That Fruit Math Puzzle That's Driving Everyone Coconuts.... What's half a coconut plus one apple plus three bananas? Is the answer 12, 14, 16, 18 or 20. Go to www.RulaBrownNetwork.com for the correct answer.

Image
 02/18/2016 02:01 am ET It's one of those Facebook posts that's all over the place, and -- like " the dress " or the  hidden panda  -- everyone seems to have a different take on it.  What is half a coconut plus one apple plus three bananas?  On the surface, it would seem the apple has a value of 10, the bananas a value of four and the coconut a value of two. And if that were the end of the story, the answer would be 2 + 10 + 4 = 16.  But in the final frame, the fruit are slightly different.  There is half a coconut, instead of two halves in the earlier example equation that establishes a value of two. And instead of the four bananas representing the value of four, there are just three bananas.  If the numbers are reduced along with the portions of fruit, you get a totally different answer: 1 + 10 + 3 = 14.   Which is the correct answer? Like the dress, the answer is in how you see it.... See Rula Brown'...
Read more

Police: 22 y-o Devon Staples shoots off firework from top of his head, dies

Image
CALAIS, Maine (AP) — A young man who was drinking and celebrating the Fourth of July tried to launch a firework off the top of his head, fatally injuring himself, authorities said Sunday. Devon Staples and his friends had been drinking and setting off fireworks Saturday night in the backyard of a friend's home in the small eastern Maine city of Calais, said Stephen McCausland, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety. Staples, 22, of Calais, placed a fireworks mortar tube on his head and set it off, he said. The firework exploded, killing Staples instantly, McCausland said. His death is the first fireworks fatality in Maine since the state legalized fireworks on Jan. 1, 2012, authorities said. Calais is on the Canadian border near New Brunswick. State fire marshals were also investigating several other Fourth of July fireworks accidents involving injuries in Friendship, Jefferson, Lebanon and Woodstock. They said most of the accidents involved burns and eye ...
Read more