"A Mile Worth of Fire"
The Cavin 'Lenky' Cooper Story
Lenky: Last year’s fire was a real disaster for we the farmers on this side here because I can remember farmers lose them coffee, them irrigation pipes and ting. Couple of the cattle farmers lose them cattles and me lose a lot of fruit trees.
Interviewer: Paint me the day when you heard about a fire or you may be looked up and saw the hills burning.
Lenky: Well really and truly we on this side was aware of the fire for about a week cause it take a week to reach here. Every day we were just hoping and hoping we wouldn’t be affected by it, but so bad lucky…we were
Interviewer: Were you able to protect your farm?
Lenky: My farm me couldn’t really protect it cause me couldn’t take up a tree which was there from grandfather days, but the cattle farmers tried to lead them cattles to lower surface and who coulda manage to take up some of them pipes, yea… but we couldn’t do nothing much, it was bigger than us, we couldn’t even team together fi put it out. That’s how bad it was.
Interviewer: When you saw the flames coming closer to your farm, what did that feel like?
Lenky: Well…( pregnant pause) I just take it with a smile and say there it goes.
Interviewer: How far are you now with recovery?
Lenky: No recovery. That property was really built from my grandfather and then the roads them nuh good again so me can’t really take it up back to carry back trees. But we have it in mind to start uplift we roads by we self. If we could get some help from the government or whatever that would be fine. Farmers coulda get active again. roads too...I can’t really carry back.
Interviewer: Is your farm far from here?
Lenky: As you can see (pointing to the hills) As you can up there… so you can judge it with your own thoughts. It burn from way up Lando side come up…it was like a miles worth of fire.
Interviewer: The stuff you grew that’s what you earned from right?
Lenky: Yes, like the ginger and the pimento. Normally how we reap the ginger we add to it. How me harvest we just harvest and build back cause ginger don’t take much to grow. My plan was to dominate it with ginger so as me reap me plant back but…
Interviewer: How do you earn now if you don’t have the crops to earn from?
Lenky: (without saying much and giving a smile he utters) Really and truly I am a really extendable guy.
In 2015 some time around April, the Windsor Castle community in
St. Thomas experienced first hand the fiery flames that ravished sections of the watersheds. Cavin Cooper otherwise called ‘Lenky’ lost all 3 acres of his property which was inherited from his grandfather.