Second Blaze Strikes as Cardona Family Loses Everything

Just minutes after tackling the blaze on Aloe Vera Street, police were called to another emergency, this time on the opposite side of Mahogany Street. Reports indicated that sixty-seven-year-old Porfirio Cardona was trapped inside a burning home on Hibiscus Street. Today, Shane Williams visited the Cardona residence, where Porfirio shared the dramatic details of his rescue.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting

Firefighters were still at the Pelayo property on Aloe Vera Street when they received reports of another house fire in progress. While Diane Pelayo and her neighbors managed to save much of their belongings, the Cardona family’s loss was far greater. They lost everything, but the family’s patriarch Porfirio says they got away with life.

 

Porfirio Cardona, Fire Survivor

“ When we watch tv, you know the heart. And, and then the son smell. We start to smell smoke. And when he got in at the room, got checked the, he done the by fire. So he start to try hollow to take away with the bone and he gave bone and then he had to electric go. Then he, and say he got back and tried document something. I, I hear a lot of smoke. Can’t think, but then I tell some wife I take out and I saw that I take out, see everything but nothing.”

 

Shane Williams

“So you managed to get nothing out of the oil center?

 

Porfirio Cardona

“Not, not that somebody come, gimme a shot.”

 

Firefighters managed to contain the flames and prevent the fire from spreading to nearby homes. The investigation is still underway, but police say early evidence points to an electrical fault, similar to what sparked the Pelayo home fire just minutes earlier.

 

ASP Stacy Smith, Staff Officer

“What we have learned so far in the course of this investigation is that one of the occupant of the house is said to have plugged in an electric fan, and after making checks in the room, after hearing some noise. He saw that the fan was, you know, under fire and that fire started to spread.”

 

Porfirio’s son, Saul Cardona, was hospitalized for burns and smoke inhalation. Now, he’s sleeping on an old couch inside a damaged structure that once served as storage. His four young grandchildren are staying with relatives. They all lost everything and will accept any act of kindness during this difficult time.

 

Porfirio Cardona

“Well. We make house, but I say I, I stay there and I send 15. So then we stayed at and I to stay here. I, when my son come out here, I stay, I need, but I have to get by two feet. But I’ll try to fix up. I need and step I can. I, right, right. Then. Clothes that, and he bring for me people, people I have. So that bring clothes for me. Some clothes. bring for me.”

 

Representatives from the Ministry of Human Development have visited the Cordona home for an initial assessment and will likely provide some form of assistance. But this family with four children under the age of sixteen will need all the help they can get. Shane Williams for News Five.