A fire destroyed more than 400 homes in a Haitian shanty town on Fire Trail Road Wednesday morning between 7am and 8am. It is estimated that about 1,000 Haitians are left homeless.
This is the second shanty town fire in just two months. A fire razed the Mackey Yard shanty town in December of last year. Several of the residents affected in yesterday’s fire were previous residents of Mackey Yard.
Many Bahamian residents nearby were concerned about the threat of the fire to their homes but the fire was successfully prevented from spreading beyond the Haitian village.
The proximity of the shacks to each other made it almost impossible to stop the fire from destroying the shanty town homes. Many Haitian residents lost everything they owned, including cash and their passports and documentation, several scrambled to save what they could.
Officials have not yet determined what started the fire but arson is a possibility.
Director of Immigration Jack Thompson said that a registry will be organised. He said that legitimate documents will be replaced but that illegal immigrants will not be protected.
