Cherisse Halsall picks up that story a the scene of the fire:

This young mother, 22-year-old Adriana Lord and her very young children, just 2 and 2 months, perished tragically this morning when smoke and fire consumed their wooden home.

It's a soul-crushing event that this morning none of the neighbours in the area could look away from even as they expressed the shock and horror they felt at the loss of the little family.

And understandably Adriana's grandmother who'd left them asleep this morning as she headed to work was inconsolable having not even begun to process the magnitude of her loss.

No immediate family member was prepared to offer any comment and so, on the scene we spoke to a cousin:

Bunny, Cousin of the deceased
"I know it's my family thing that when I came down the stretch and saw my family house burning all of us came."

Reporter:
"So about what time?"

Bunny, Cousin of the deceased
"About, no shop wasn't open yet because we hadn't bought the rum yet. It was about quarter to six or some quarter to 7."

"The fire claims little life and thing family members got lost and things that we have to try to cope with right now and as you see my family is right there still trying to process this whole thing but we don't know what created that fire there but it just destroyed it messed up lots of lives."

"Thank god for the fireman who lives here Mr Bud who they threw across their little water line trying to put out the fire and the neighbours them everybody was trying to put this thing but it was just out of our control."

And that's just what station supervisor Kenneth Mortis told the media when we gathered in his office this afternoon.

Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor
"It's an unfortunate situation because regardless of how these untrained firemen tried to make an attempt in entering the building and then the trained fire fighters arrived on the scene even with the amount of smoke that was editing from the building, we ourselves could not make a successful attempt into the building, it wasn't until the fire was officially brought under control the discovery was made, it's a tragedy that one can barely imagine as to how it happened. We are of the belief that the mother, they were overcome by the smoke before they succumbed to their demise."

"Structure of the building proved to have been an obstacle for everybody involved. We learned that the rear room where the family was located, that rear wall did not have a window. That's the reason we couldn't readily access them to even pull them out if we wanted to."

"Initially when there is a cry for help within a building, the first mindset is to try the doors. It was a wooden structure on of age. It only took a matter of minutes before that building was completely engulfed in flames, um, we were able to conclude that the fire started as a resulting of an electrical flaw. All electrical remains show that they had deteriorated over a period of time and it gave way this morning. The fire worked its way up from the ceiling and then back down, whereby all the smoke came down to a lower level before the fire itself consume the building. Once that happened, visibility was poor and the mother couldn't find her way out."

"And sure enough to the cries and the concerns we observed what was the body of an unidentified adult. We further cleared the area and we learned the it was a mother and two of her very young children that were caught in this inferno investigations went on to reveal that the first responding team which was the neighbours and the other residents for that area they indeed heard the cries for help coming from within the structure however attempts to reach them were futile."

And news of the young family's death has also shaken their area rep who over the years has become close with the family. He spoke to us via Zoom this morning to express condolences and also a wish that no one else ever has to endure the same.

Patrick Faber, Area Rep, Collett
"She's the grandchild of one of our staunchest supporters in the collet area Ms Elida and just for context people will know that where this house is it's literally a few yards from our office so this one strikes very close to home for us."

"I can only imagine the pain that Ms. Elida and her family feel for the loss of a grandchild but also these two babies as we would refer to them."

"We extend to her our greatest sympathies and we hope that over time that this loss can be mitigated and, we never again have this kind of incident."