WITH the memories of the Brittons Hill apartment collapse still fresh in their minds, couple Patricia and George Bascombe are living in fear because of a huge, expanding hole in their backyard.
And even though they live at Glendairy Road, Carrington Village, St Michael, Patricia said she first saw signs of cracks in her backyard when the apartment, located miles away from their home, collapsed three years ago.
“Two months after the apartment collapsed in Brittons Hill I went into the backyard and noticed that it was cracking,” the 60-year-old woman explained.
Bascombe said she did not pay much attention to it but months later she realised that it was getting bigger.
She said she and her husband, who is 90, went to the Urban Development Commission (UDC) for help.
“We filled out a form and they told us that they would send someone to look at it, but nobody came.”
She said health inspectors also visited their home and said they would assist, but never got back to them.
However, last week she got the shock of her life when she contracted workmen to cut the overgrown grass in her backyard.
“They were cutting the grass when one of the men slipped and almost fell into the hole. I stood at the back door and my heart freeze when he started to fall but one of the other men held onto his hand and helped him.
“The grass was covering the hole, so I did not know that it had become so big. It was only when the men cut the grass that I saw how big it was.”
Bascombe now tries to keep the back door locked and bolted, especially when she goes to church, because she is afraid that her elderly husband would venture outside and fall into the hole – which she estimated to be about six feet deep.
“I am very scared to go out there, and the well is near to the house, so it seems as if the hole is going to eventually spread under the house,” she cried.
The woman said she and her husband did not know what to do or where to turn, but both of them were now afraid to even sleep at night.
I contacted the UDC on their behalf and gave all of their information to an officer there. I will follow up this situation.
I am also asking anyone out there who can help this elderly couple to please contact me at the NATION
