( Jamaica Observer) GRIEF and anger were palpable in the Central Kingston community of Smith Lane on Saturday as it was confirmed that seven-year-old Keriecia Hutchinson and her four-year-old brother Samson Cameron had perished in a mid-morning house fire.
Residents remembered the two children who they said were promising and full of life while anger surged as people assigned blame for their deaths.Keriecia was a grade one student at Calabar All-Age School, while Samson was a student of Calabar Basic School.
“The mother locked them up in the house and gone to a wholesale. She could have just left them out and asked any of wi to look on them,” charged one neighbour who, like her colleagues, refused to give their names.
“The mother do nothing wrong, the [son’s] father was here and him run go up there [to the room] before the fire get wicked and him run down back and say him can’t reach the children,” charged another neighbour.
Police on the scene refused to speak with the media to confirm or deny either claim, but the contention morphed into a physical battle between one woman — who was defending the children’s grandmother — and another female resident who was chastising the parents.
Police on the scene fired a number of shots in the air to separate the combatants and at least three people were later taken into custody.
But for most residents in Smith Lane the death of the two children was their main concern.
