‘Voodoo’ blaze mystery.
Family hit by 27 fires in 3 months.
A family who have been driven out of two homes by fires are blaming the blazes on voodoo. In three months Mr Eustace Waite has called in the fire brigade 27 times to deal with mystery blazes. Every time he and his family move house, blazes break out in their new home. Fire brigade chiefs in the Balsall Heath district of Birmingham admit that they are baffled. And now they have set up a committee with the police to investigate the fires.
Mr Waite, a West Indian factory worker, said: “We do not know what is causing the fires. We think it is voodoo – evil spirits. That is the only explanation.”
The trouble started when Mr Waite, his wife Iona and their seven children, lived in St Paul’s Street, Balsall Heath. Several fires broke out, and they had to leave. They went to live in Clevedon Road. More fires started in the house, and the whole of the ground floor was burned out. Now the Waites have moved to a third house, in Cox Street West. And still they are being dogged by fires.
A senior fire officer said: “We have been to the family 27 times since February to deal with fires. I do not believe in ghosts and I keep looking for a logical explanation. But the whole thing defies explanation.” He said that one blaze had broken out after the Waites had called in a priest to exorcise the “evil spirits.” The priest locked the whole family in a downstairs room while he blessed the house. When he unlocked the door and the family trooped out, the priest smelled smoke. An upstairs room was on fire.
The fire officer said that when another blaze started his torch mysteriously went out as he came downstairs. “I slipped and twisted my ankle,” he said. “Mr Waite said the spirits were to blame and it would not get better until they had gone. It was swollen for weeks. Then it got better, at a time when we did not hear from the family. But in the past few weeks the Waites, have called us to fires again – and, believe it or not, my ankle has swollen up again.”
The People, 4th May 1969.
Girl’s family blame black magic for mystery fires.
A family whose home has been plagued by fires believes the cause to be black magic, Birmingham Juvenile Court was told yesterday. The court was dealing with a complaint made against a 13-year-old West Indian girl and her 15-year-old brother, after they had been placed under supervision.
Divisional Office rHarold Black, of Birmingham Fire Service, said: “It has been impossible to decide how these fires started. The parents and all the members of the family whom we have interviewed are firmly of the belief that they are caused by some form of black magic or evil spirits. However they are caused, they occur only when the girl is on the premises. It is our contention that however they are caused, whether by deliberate firing or some form of supernatural happening, they do centre around the girl.”
Mr Leslie Cox, children’s officer, said that after 20 fires had been mysteriously started in houses where the family was living at the time, the children were brought before the court and a supervision order made. Both children were later returned home, but next day the boy voluntarily came back to the centre, saying that he was afraid to stay at home.
The girl remained home and between April 25 and May 1, there were four fires in the house.
Both children were committed to the care of the local authority.
Nottingham Guardian, 30th May 1969.