Sophia’s fire…Burnt baby succumbs

Apr 09, 2013 News

Little Jabarri Stanford who was badly burnt in a fire at his ‘D’ Field Sophia home last Saturday died around 06:30 hours yesterday at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

Dead: Little Jabarri Stanford

The one-year-old sustained burns about his body and was in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
On Saturday, the infant’s mother, Rehanna Jones, left him with his three siblings, aged eight, seven and three at their one-bedroom Sophia home to run an errand when the fire started on a mattress on which the toddler was sleeping.
The fire is believed to have been caused by the seven-year-old, who along with his 12-year-old friend, was reportedly playing with matches in the bedroom.
Yesterday, the children’s mother told Kaieteur News that her son is giving her different versions of what took place on that fateful day. She wants the police to question her son’s 12-year-old friend who was with him that day.
“The li’l boy (her son’s friend) is talking but his mother is trying to cover things up. All I want is for the police to question him,” the dead child’s mother revealed.
Meanwhile, little Stanford’s father, Steve, told Kaieteur News that on the day of the fire, it was his birthday. “I went and see him (his son) and then I left to go up the East Coast and that was when I receive a call about my son’s incident.”
He explained that the seven-year-old is a “very stubborn child” and he believes that if his child mother didn’t leave her house that day, his son could have been saved.
“She got children and their father doesn’t maintain them. If her children father used to look after them, then she should have never had to leave the house to go and work. I would have looked after her and my baby,” the older Stanford said.
The matter is now being investigated by the police as well as the Child Care Protection Agency.
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