Three days into 2009 and three house fires have been recorded.

The latest blaze at Block 2E, Silver Hill, Christ Church, left a family of five searching for a place to spend the night after fire damaged their home yesterday.

Deputy Fire Officer Eric Rice confirmed it was the third house fire the Barbados Fire Service had responded to yesterday.

A distraught Sylvia Hunte-Trotman told the SUNDAY SUN that she, her husband Woodrow Trotman, son Flloyd Hunte, daughter Natasha Trotman, and grandson Xavier Welch, 9, were now homeless.

Hunte-Trotman said she was attending a funeral when her son called her and told her the bad news. Neighbours, who called the Fire Service, managed to remove some of her household items.

Four tenders, three from Probyn Street headquarters in Bridgetown, and one from Worthing, Christ Church, along with 11 officers under the command of Rice, answered the 3:46 p.m call. The house also suffered water damage.

Parliamentary representative for Christ Church West Central, Stephen Lashley, said the priorities were now to find housing and to provide medical attention for the family.

The other fires occurred at Monroe Village, St George, where the uninsured home of Wayne Douglas was damaged and contents destroyed, and at Cleavers Hill, St Joseph, where an uninsured and unoccupied house belonging to Gertrude Adamson, who lives in Wotton, Christ Church, was extensively damaged. (CA)

Source: www.nationnews.com