Tragic Fire at Ramon’s Village

It’s not easy to find the words to describe the tragedy if last nights fire at Ramon’s Village Resort. We had been at Charlie’s wake for a while and  suddenly Paul  came through the door with a horrified look on his face and said “Ramon’s is on fire.”A few uf us ran out the door and saw the sky to the north was filled with sparks that were blowing south west.  Lara, Phil Andy and I immediately headed towards the main road. There was already a large crowd gathered when we hit island supermarket and you could see big flames. We lost track of Lara right after she said she was going to with Melody and Davin to check on Dixie. Phil Andy and I  cut through Island Academy and over to the beach, as we drew closer to the fire, my stomach sank. The heat was strong and the crackling sound loud, I have never felt so helpless in my whole life.

The flames had to be at least30 feet high at their peak, homes and businesses as far south as Pedro’s Hotel were wetting down their buildings and yards, with the amount of sparks flying no one was taking any chances. Thankfully I  have not heard any reports of serious injuries which is a miracle considering how bad the fire was.

I am sure many suffered smoke inhalation as they tried to help keep the flames at bay. The second time I went out I could not go any further than  Wine e Vine as the smoke was too bad to breath.

Phone service was in and out and I managed to call  a few of the Red Cross board to make sure they knew what was going on and tried to reach Dick but was unsuccessful. Even though I  knew he was at close by working at the hanger, we never did cross paths till this morning when we went to go see how everything looked in the light of day.

Here is Dicks account of last night:  A few minutes before 8pm I noticed smoke coming from the area of Ramon’s Village so I went to see . The fire was just beginning , I could see the flames starting to go up the thatch roof, I asked if people called the fire department and they said yes so I returned to work the fires grew rapidly actually jumping from roof top to tree to roof top etc. from the roof of tropic hanger we could feel the heat .

By 9:00pm it was huge and by 10:00pm the fire department had it contained. There were sparks all over the airport and buildings south of fire. Thankfully the propane tank never blew up but the thermal relief valves let go and the flames were like huge torches. Tropic Air had a pump given to them by Victoria House Resort and was able to use their large cistern and the pump to try and help  combat the fire. The hose was run between the Poly Clinic and Island Supermarket to reach to the fire unfortunately the hose only made it  4 feet over the fence but it was better than nothing.

Here are a few pics I took with my LG thrive camera phone and some that Zac shot with his Sony Camera. I  will do a second post with daytime pics and video later today or tomorrow, going to go help Zac move right now.