Flames of fear haunt Central Kingston

A trail of flames has left a trail of heartbreak across Central Kingston, with families losing homes and possessions in successive fires and, now, two young siblings losing their lives in the latest Smith Lane tragedy.

For Lisa Tomlinson, the tragedy is especially difficult to bear. The mother of nine was devastated when she heard that four-year-old Samson Cameron and his seven-year-old sister, Keriecia Hutchinson, had died in a fire along Smith Lane last Saturday.

The children were known to her family. They were classmates of her twins at Calabar, making their deaths feel painfully close to home.

“Mi never deh here when it happen and when mi get the news mi scream out and cry because it could be me,” Tomlinson said.

Sitting in front of Calabar All-Age School, where three of her children attend, Tomlinson struggled to contain her emotions as she recalled the children and their family.

“The baby them a mi twin them classmate. Dem a come from infant come right up, mi feel it,” she said.

The deaths have reopened wounds for Tomlinson, who knows all too well how quickly a fire can turn a home into ashes.

Just months ago, she and other families were left homeless after a blaze destroyed numerous dwellings at 24 and 26 Smith Lane in Central Kingston. More than 20 people were left without homes, including children. She pointed towards the burnt-out lot where her home once stood, now covered in debris and charred belongings, with an unburnt Bible among the remains.

“That could happen to anybody,” she said of the recent deadly fire.

Tomlinson vividly remembered the day the flames engulfed the place she called home.

“The Sunday mi did deh inside just done press the baby them uniform and give them the phone to study them spellings, only to be there and hear one seh, ‘Mommy, I smell smoke’. Mi run him and tell him to go do him schoolwork because the fan a blow and mi nuh see no smoke. [But] by time mi look I see them a run a come round. When mi go look, a bare fire, mi couldn’t save nothing but three set a uniform,” Tomlinson said.

The lot, she explained, had been home to more than seven dwellings, with residents sharing a single bathroom.

In the aftermath, families were scattered across different homes as they tried to find somewhere to sleep.

“Nine of wi and 21 kids are homeless right now,” she said.

She counted the children on her fingers as she described how the fire had uprooted their lives.

They are all now “kotching somewhere”, she said.

The March blaze was not the only fire to leave Central Kingston residents counting their losses.

In February 2025, a fire in the Ladd Lane and Fleet Street area left several families homeless, while other major fires have struck commercial and residential properties in and around downtown Kingston in recent years.

The repeated fires have left residents confronting not only the immediate loss of homes and possessions, but also the fear that another blaze could erupt without warning.

For Tomlinson, that fear has never really gone away.

She is still trying to rebuild her life, provide for her nine children and find some stability after losing the home where her family lived.

As she sat near the school attended by her children, Tomlinson said the latest tragedy has made it even harder for her family to move forward.

“From mi get the burn out mi mind nuh content up to all today day,” she said. “Mi kids them is unhappy, mi baby them cry, but a just life. Wi a try rebuild, but we need a little space while we rebuild, so we would want some help,” she added.

Raheem Snape has become accustomed to running towards fires when others are running away. The Central Kingston resident was among those who rushed to help when fire engulfed the home of Tomlinson and several other dwellings along Smith Lane earlier this year. He was also there when flames tore through another house in the area a fortnight ago, leaving the two young siblings dead.

For Snape, rushing to help is nothing unusual.