Sleeping child dies after tree crashes onto house

Oct 31, 2011 News

– five others injured

A five year old girl was killed early Sunday morning after heavy winds caused a tree to crash down on her home while she slept. Dead is Tammica Hackett, of Freeman Street, East La Penitence.

Tammica Hackett

The little girl who attended the East La Penitence Primary School and was in grade one, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Hospital, sometime after 01:00hrs on Sunday.
A relative who lives next to the family recounted that it was around 01:00hrs when she heard the sound of a heavy wind.
Seconds later a loud crashing sound was heard, and the occupants in the house where the child resided began screaming.
“After the tree fall, all I hear was them hollering in the house…so everybody run outside.”
Neighbors immediately rushed out to render assistance and rescuers quickly pulled the two youngest children—one-year-old Julius, and three-year-old Richie, out of the house.
The eldest child, seven-year-old Kelly Ann Hope, was pulled from the ruble with the assistance of an aunt.
Neighbors kept calling for “Little Tammica” but got no response. The child’s mother Tamica Hope watched helplessly as persons tried to find the little girl.
Eventually, one of the neighbors shifted a sheet of zinc and found Tammica lying motionless, pinned by the tree.
It took the neighbors about five minutes to free her but by then it was too late.
One eyewitness told Kaieteur News that when the child was pulled from the house, blood was oozing from her eyes, mouth and ears and she appeared to be dead.
While the child’s mother was too distraught to speak, the father, Junior Hackett, who received a large laceration to his shoulder, said that he had informed the City Council about the tree on several occasions.

The tree that crashed into the house

Hackett explained to Kaieteur News that after the tree crashed into the house, he immediately knew something was wrong with Tammica.
“I hear everybody screaming except her…..I already knew something was wrong so I started shouting for her…” Hackett told Kaieteur News.
Meanwhile, a number of residents yesterday expressed their dissatisfaction with the 911 service.
According to residents, numerous calls were made, but no one answered the phones. Efforts to contact a representative from the City Council yesterday proved futile.