FORTY YEARS LATER…VICTIMS OF THE EVENTIDE FIRE ARE REMEMBERED!

Caribbean Community of Retired Persons founder Jean Lowrie-Chin prepares to lay a wreath. Looking on are (from left) are Errol Howlett, Emma Lewis, and Hubie Chin.—-

By Judana Murphy, Gleaner Writer —

Forty years after 153 old and destitute women died in the infamous Eventide fire, they were this afternoon memorialised by a group including three retirees.

The Eventide women, some blind and many physically handicapped were sleeping when the fire broke out.

Some were buried by their relatives.

However, according to a May 27, 1980 article in The Gleaner, “The charred remains of 145 of the victims of the May 20 fire at the Eventide Home in Kingston were buried in 26 wooden coffins in a single grave at National Heroes Park.”