Infant perishes in Sophia fire days before 1st birthday

– brother severely burnt; mother taken into custody

An infant identified as 11-month-old Melveena Angel Blair perished after the house she and her other siblings were allegedly locked inside went up in flames early Saturday morning.
The fire broke out at Cummings Park, ‘E’ Field Sophia Reserve, Georgetown house just about 11:30h thus leaving Angel dead and her brother suffered third-degree burns and was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital for urgent treatment.
According to neighbours, the wooden shack was home to a couple and their four children. Reports suggest the parents and another child had left the house earlier Saturday morning for work. They reportedly worked nearby to prepare and sell ‘dog food’.
The three remaining children, including Angel, were left at home. One woman recalled hearing what sounded like fireworks before realising the house was engulfed in flames.
“I knew the children were usually left alone, so me and my son rushed over. The door was bolted from the outside, so we had to break it open,” she recounted. Inside, Angel was found lying on a mattress, already overcome by fire.
“I tried to grab her, but it was too late. There were clothes and a lot of things around her. The house is tiny. They eat, sleep, and do everything in one space without partition. When I bent down to grab her, she started falling apart, and the mattress and everything was on to her. My son barely spotted her brother and he pulled him out”.

“He was completely covered in flames and his whole back and hand was burned. When he came out, he was crying and trembling if my son hadn’t seen him, both he and his sister would have died” the neighbour said.
The third child reportedly escaped unharmed through a window. Eyewitnesses also claimed that the uninjured child later admitted to his mother to starting the fire under the mattress using a lighter, which quickly spread throughout the wooden structure.
Firefighters arrived at the scene, but the house was already destroyed. After the blaze was extinguished, Angel’s charred remains were discovered in the rubble. Her injured brother was rushed to the hospital by the father, who arrived at the scene shortly after the fire started.
Residents alleged that the parents had a history of leaving the children unattended for extended periods, sometimes for days at a time. The mother of the children was taken into police custody at the Turkeyen Police Station as investigations continue.
Fire officials are working to determine the exact cause of the blaze, while child welfare authorities are reportedly looking into the family’s living conditions and allegations of neglect. (LaWanda McAllister)