On a devastating Friday night in Spanish Town, St Catherine, Jamaica, an out-of-control residential fire has shattered a local family, leaving one teenager dead and her older brother fighting for his life with severe burns – while their grieving mother issues an urgent public appeal for life-saving support. Suzette Campbell, a resident of 12 St John’s Garden and the mother of both victims, opened up about the harrowing moments that unfolded as she returned to her neighborhood that evening.
It was around 5:00 pm when Campbell first spotted thick black smoke billowing through the area. “I saw a lot of smoke and I thought, ‘Where is that smoke coming from?’ People told me it was from the house next door, so I knew I had to go check what was happening,” Campbell recalled. “By the time I got there, I watched my son run straight out through the flames.”
In the chaos that followed, Campbell learned the awful truth: her 14-year-old daughter Gabriella Wright had been trapped inside the burning structure, and could not escape. The young girl died in the fire, which destroyed every single possession the family owned. “Everything burned down, nothing was left, and my daughter was burned too,” Campbell said, her grief palpable.
Gabriella’s 25-year-old brother, Courtney Dailey, who managed to flee the blaze wearing only his underwear, suffered full-thickness burns across large portions of his body. He was rushed to a local hospital immediately after the fire, but remains in critical condition. Campbell says local medical facilities do not have the specialized equipment and resources required to treat Dailey’s life-threatening injuries, leaving the family with no other option than to seek care outside of Jamaica. “He has no chance here, the hospital can’t help him. The hospital can’t help my son at all,” she explained, making a direct public appeal for intervention from Jamaica’s Prime Minister to help secure urgent overseas treatment.
This is not the first tragedy Campbell has had to endure: family reports confirm she lost another son to a shooting roughly two to three years ago, adding another layer of pain to the latest devastating loss.
A family member who arrived at the scene shortly after the fire broke out described the aftermath as overwhelmingly distressing. “The situation is really intense. I was on the scene when it took place; it’s really terrible just to look at,” the witness said, noting the entire family is in dire need of financial and emotional support right now.
Officials from the Burn Foundation of Jamaica have stepped in to support the family, confirming they are already working to arrange the specialized overseas medical care Dailey needs. Stephen Josephs, a representative from the foundation, stressed that even with the severity of Dailey’s injuries, survival is possible if he can access the right treatment quickly.
“We have received information from a hospital overseas, and we are hopeful that this young man can pull through,” Josephs said. “But based on the extent of his burns, it’s going to take specialized treatment to save his life, so I am calling on all Jamaicans to rally around this grieving family.”
Members of the public who want to support the Campbell family can donate through the Wings of Hope Fund at the official crisis support charity website, or contribute directly to the public GoFundMe campaign set up in Courtney Dailey’s name.