Johnson Road Family Loses Everything in House Blaze

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NASSAU , BAHAMAS – A devastating fire has left a Johnson Road home in ruins, and a family forced to confront the heartbreaking reality of starting over.

The fire erupted Wednesday afternoon, one resident is counting her blessings after a simple decision may have saved her life.

This is all that remains after a tragic fire left a family of six starting over, with only the clothes on their backs as their home of ten years burned before their eyes.

The single-story home in the Johnson Road community went up in flames shortly after 2 Wednesday afternoon.

One of the residents, a Haitian national, recounts the moment she says changed her life forever.

She says good Samaritans driving by alerted her to the fire while she was asleep on her living room couch.

Mona Olivier-Bethell – Resident

“Everybody inside, fire in the meter, coming out. When I coming out, I try to get the hose to try stop the fire, but the fire already be swell up.”

She says she is grateful to be alive, and believes a small decision to lie down in the living room instead of the back room may have saved her life.

Mona Olivier-Bethell – Resident

“I just lay down. I don’t lay down in the back. If I would’ve laid down in the back I would’ve been dead, cause if I did lay down in the back I don’t hear no one blowing the car outside. Cause I was right there. That’s how come I hear the car blowing.”

But while she escaped with her life, she lost everything else.

Her home, her belongings and her money were all destroyed in the fire.

Mona Olivier-Bethell – Resident

“What are you gonna do from here? I don’t know because I have no money. My money burn up inside.”

She says she has nowhere to go.

Mona Olivier-Bethell – Resident

“No, I have nowhere to go.”

Now, as the family is left to figure out what comes next, the Johnson Road community is stepping in.

Our News learned members of the community have come together to offer assistance to the family, which includes young children, as they face the daunting task of rebuilding their lives from scratch.

A home they called their own for ten years is now reduced to ashes.

And for this family, the road ahead will be about more than rebuilding a house.

It will be about rebuilding a life.