ST JOHN’S, Antigua – An early morning fire yesterday damaged an apartment complex leaving 13 people homeless including President of War Against Rape (WAR) Alexandrina Wong and her family.

The occupants of the two storey complex, located on Atlantic Avenue in Coolidge, lost most of their belongings to either the flames or water used to put it out, shortly after 7 am.

The building is divided into six apartments and Wong occupied the largest. The advocate, her children and grandchildren, totalling eight persons, have been offered temporary boarding at a home a friend secured.

“The community has been very supportive and came out and helped us. Somebody even prepared snacks and sent over for the children and I am very grateful for that. One of my neighbours made a contact and I spoke to (the person) who offered my family a one-month stay,” Wong said, while expressing her gratitude.

Another woman, who resided in the apartment, Tomika Todd, said she managed to save her certificates, travel documents and other identification material as well as her television set.

Like the others who lived in the apartment, she, too, had to wade through rubble and water to see what else could be salvaged after firefighters put out the inferno.

Reports indicate the blaze might have been triggered by an electrical fan left on overnight in one of the apartments.

Anyone interested in making donations to the affected families can do so through Red Cross.

Yesterday’s fire brought the number of reports so far for 2012 to 229, the exact half mark of the number of fires recorded for all of 2011.

(More in today’s Daily OBSERVER)