ÐÓ°ÉÐÔ°É

As she sat across from the ashes of what was once her neighbour's home, Tanash Pinnock fought hard to hold back her tears as she spoke about the kind and caring nature of 80-year-old Claudia McNeish who died in a fire yesterday morning.

McNeish, who was fondly known as 'Miss Pat', was home alone when her apartment, which is on the top floor of a four-storey building in Majesty Gardens, St Andrew, caught fire. After the fire was extinguished, the elderly woman was found laying face down on the floor with burns on her arms. Her apartment, which was centrally located on the fourth floor, was the only one of four that was affected by the fire.

"Mi sorry how Miss Pat dead," Pinnock said with tears in her eyes, adding that McNeish was a kind and caring person who did not hesitate to help when she could. She said that before McNeish's mental capacity started to dwindle, she was always hanging out with her neighbours.

"If she guh pan the road and come back she seh 'Tanash, yuh want a Malta fi drink? Or a sorrel beer?' Miss Pat a buy mi it," she added.

Pinnock, who was on her way to Coronation Market to purchase items for her elderly neighbour, learnt about the fire via phone call.

"When dem call mi, mi a run from the gas station and nah talk bout nothing but Miss Pat in a di house, Miss Pat in a di house," she said.

"To how mi feel, all mi foot dem weak. Mi panic, mi cah move. Is a call mi get and when mi a run a come dung, come een like mi a run and mi nah run," Pinnock said.

She told THE STAR that when she got to the apartments, she found multiple residents trying to extinguish the fire with buckets of water. But after realising that the blaze was out of control, they called the fire department who arrived approximately 30 minutes later.

She also said that the elderly woman had been living alone for the past six months and had to be cared for by her neighbours who gave her food and rendered any other assistance she needed.

Prior to the fire, Pinnock said that the elderly woman was living in squalor and had piles of trash in her bedroom and other areas of the apartment.

"It was bad, enuh, because mi cah stomach the scent fi guh in deh suh, enuh," Pinnock said, adding that she had to use a mask whenever she had to enter the elderly woman's home.

She added that she tried multiple times to get help for McNeish but with no success.

"Mi nuh know weh mi nuh guh, weh mi nuh guh fi get help fi Miss Pat. Mi nuh know weh mi nuh guh and no help," Pinnock said.

Senior Superintended Kirk Ricketts, head of the St Andrew South Police Division, told THE STAR that the Hunts Bay police are currently conducting a preliminary investigation. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.