42-year-old Kemba Morris and her 8-year-old daughter Zaya perished in a fire at their Siparia home on Sunday 2nd April 2023.
• Shortly after 5:00am, the fire started at their home in Quinam road, Siparia.
• A neighbour who was passing by, noticed the fire and broke a window in the attempts to alert the family, however Morris was already in the process of waking everyone up.
• Morris’ other children, ages 21 and 16, her younger sister Dana Phillip along with another person identified as 37-year-old Jamieyel Pantor managed to escape flames.
• When they got outside, they realised that Morris and Zaya did not make it out the house, but rescue attempts were impossible as the house was already engulfed in flames.
• Morris and Zaya were later found crouched together a few feet away from their back door.
• Residents are calling for a properly functioning fire station in the district since the Siparia Fire Station did not have a functioning tender to respond.
• As a result, a tender from the Penal Fire Station responded but took almost an hour to get to the scene.
• Lorna Gonzales, who lives opposite Morris’ home, believe that if the firefighters had responded sooner, the damage would not have been so extensive.
• She also stated that the firefighters allegedly had to leave the scene twice to replenish the water.
