Family homeless after Montrose fire

A family of New Montrose is now homeless after a fire gutted their two-bedroom house on Wednesday night.

Anthony Anderson and his family stood in the road outside their house, looking on in disbelief as the structure which they had built just over a year ago, disappeared before their eyes.{{more}}

Residents of the area comforted the family and offered encouraging words as Anderson’s wife held their 10-month-old sleeping baby in a blanket. Anderson’s step-daughter was also in the house at the time of the fire.

Anderson told SEARCHLIGHT that he was at home baking when sometime after 7 pm, he said they experienced a problem with the cylinder of cooking gas.

“We bought a cylinder of gas today and as we put it on, we hear it giving a funny sound as if it leaking. After we tighten the hose on it (the cylinder), we light back the oven and as we light back the oven, we hear a little oozing coming from the cylinder. And then I hear the wife say to me: ‘Antho, that going to blow’ and after the wife say so, I tell them come out of the house. And as I tell them come out of the house, the whole thing start to blow,” Anderson related.

Anderson said he tried to put out the fire, but after he began to feel trapped, he was forced to leave the building through the back door. He said he suffered minor burns.

The distraught man said his 24×26 wall and plywood structure was completely destroyed and that everything was lost in the blaze.

“I lose everything, I lose everything, everything was destroyed,” he said.

The fire service of the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force responded to the fire, but after climbing the steep hills to get to the blaze, the fire truck was unable to save the dwelling.(KW)