Fire is very useful in our daily lives in diverse ways due to its indispensable nature. It is used in homes, especially for our cooking needs, as well as for the supply of energy through technology, amongst other activities. However, it can be very destructive when not carefully handled.

The recent spate of fire disasters in the country is alarming. Fires have already caused considerable damage to countless number of properties and belongings and to a large extent affected even lives. The causes of these fire outbreaks that are reported are most of the time similar – electrical fault, candle light, gas explosions, and so on.

The outcome of these disasters often force the victims into a situation of destitution and dilemma, as they usually lose everythingincluding food items, clothes, sources of income within the household, and other valuables, thus making life unbearable if no assistance is forthcoming.

This is the story of a single mother of five children who had except the clothes she and her children wore on that fateful day lost virtually everything in a fire accident that was caused by electrical fault. The Daily Observer confirmed her story and it was observed that Mariama Jallow, 31, had until the incident lived happily with her five poor school going children depending on a hard petty trading to make ends meet.

Jallow, a Tabokoto resident has since made a passionate appeal to the general public to come to her aid in this trying moment, particularly in the area of food and other means to enable her start her usual business. But, as she puts it, she is deeply frustrated asno assistance has been forthcoming from the general public since the incident.

?“I am desperately looking for help from anywhere. Since the incident occurred, I was only given a handful of second hand clothing from the Disaster Management Committee of West Coast Region. But my concern is the food which is currently lacking because I believe before you can put on something like cloth you must have something first on the table to eat.

I am jobless with no outside support, a single mother supporting the feeding, clothing and education of five children through my petty business, which has come to a standstill because the materials used for that income generating activity to support my family were all destroyed by the fire,” the young mother narrated in tears.

Until the incident, Madam Jallow’s only source of incomewasthe selling of boabab juice commonly known as ice in the streets of Kanifing Municipality. But that business, which she described as a bit lucrative for her could no longer continue after the fire disaster because all the five deep freezers that make the ice were all destroyed during the outbreak. In addition, Madam Jallow also pays a rent of D1, 500 and an electricity of D1, 500 monthly; and these monies were paid from the income she generates from the petty trading.

“I was selling juice to support my family from feeding, to clothing and education; a trade I was content with. I had five refrigerators, two of which were bought at D9, 000 each; whilst the rest were purchased at D4, 000 each. Those refrigerators were enough for my petty trading as they enabled me to generate the income I need to support my family.

But now with no penny left in my coffers after the incident, it is difficult to replace these assets to start all over again. I have explored every opportunity for assistance but to no avail because life has become very unbearable for me and my children, whose educations are also at risk,” the sad-looking Jallow, who couldn’t hold her tears, further narrated.

In fact, one of Jallow’s sons nearly lost his life in the disaster. He was at the time of the incident sleeping inside. But due to the motherly love and the fact that she couldn’t bear to see her child perish in an inferno in her presence, she took the risk of rescuing him from the blazing inferno through the window.

“I also sustained a minor injury during the course of the rescue but I [would] rather perish with him there than to see him helplessly screaming for rescue. But I thank God that his life was spared by the fire even though he sustained an injury, which he is recovering from,” the single mother added.

Giving the sympathetic nature of her situation, Mariama Jallow is now appealing to the general public, the NGO community, aid agencies, the National Disaster Management Agency, and any other individual both within and outside the country to come to her aid.

The woman can be reached on 3658213 or 3658204.