Amid towering flames and the roar of bulldozers, squatters at Kingston’s Industrial Terrace and Foreshore Road raced desperately to save what they could as their shanty homes were demolished. Families, including children, braved intense heat to retrieve furniture, boards, and personal items left behind, rushing to outpace the machines flattening their makeshift dwellings after a government-imposed eviction deadline expired.

Published Wednesday, July 13, 1996 

Bulldozers clear 

Industrial Terrace, Foreshore Road shacks levelled, burnt 
-2 shanty towns
-Lands Dept, PWD move into action as deadline ends 

BULLDOZERS moved swiftly yesterday, sweeping squatter shacks into massive heaps at the Industrial Terrace and Foreshore Road shanty towns in Kingston’s west.
Then, crews from the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Ministry of Housing cleared the Industrial Terrace land, while the Foreshore Road land saw the shanties — which numbered over 800 — set on fire, sending dense black smoke skywards.
But the squatters and their children braved the towering flames and intense heat to retrieve items of furniture, building boards, and posts they had failed to move out before the operation began.

For many, there was a mad rush to beat the bulldozers.
Squatters scampered back and forth to secure spots, hurrying to clear out their belongings as the bulldozers’ shovels loomed.

MISSED DEADLINE
The flattened shacks belonged to squatters who failed to meet the midnight Monday deadline set by the Government following the outbreak of violence in West Kingston, which started as gang warfare and spread to include sporadic political clashes.
One man was killed, some 30 persons seriously injured, and two police revolvers snatched during the period of violence, which included gunplay, explosives, and various other missiles.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture and Lands, the Hon John P. Gyles, announced yesterday: “All West Kingston squatter settlements set up on Government lands will be bulldozed, and bulldozed until they are completely cleared.”

Yesterday’s bulldozing at Industrial Terrace wiped out the remainder of what was Back-o-Wall, the larger part of which was demolished in 1963 to make way for the new low-cost Tivoli Gardens housing estate.

HOUSING PROJECT
At Foreshore Road, only the major part of the shanty town’s western end — stretching from the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Company’s Hunt’s Bay power station to the JPS light pole storage lot in the middle of the squatter settlement — was razed.
Up to late yesterday, squatters there were continuing their exodus, moving their shacks — whole and dismantled — on trucks, handcarts, and animal-drawn buggies.
The bulldozing crews will resume demolition this morning at Foreshore Road, where it is expected the job will be finished by tomorrow.

The Tivoli Gardens housing project is to be expanded on the cleared Industrial Terrace land, while the Foreshore Road land is intended for industrial development, a government spokesman said.

A 300-man police detachment, commanded by Assistant Commissioner Basil, stood by protectively yesterday as the bulldozers flattened the shacks, but there were no incidents.

Extra police guards were also posted at Jamaica House, Gordon House, all government ministries, and the Duke Street headquarters of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union — a precautionary measure taken to repel possible mob attacks, Police Commissioner Gordon Langdon explained. But there were none.

The Roman Catholic and Anglican denominations are assisting many of the displaced squatters in finding alternative accommodation.
The Anglicans have acquired seven acres of land at Caymanas Bay, Caymanas, to resettle some.

CONTROVERSY
But a controversy is developing between the St Catherine Parish Council and the Roman Catholic Church over the temporary relocation of 50 squatters at grounds behind the Catholics’ St Catherine High School, St John’s Road, Spanish Town.
The matter is to be discussed at a meeting of the parish council and church representatives tomorrow.

Other squatters, moving their shacks whole and dismantled, have resettled at May Pen Cemetery, Moonlight City, Tower Hill, Sligoville, and Riverton City — where new 48-hour quit notices expire at 6 a.m. today.

An officer of the Lands Department said yesterday shacks at Riverton City — rebuilt on private housing lots — will be bulldozed if the deadline is not met.
The JPS disconnected electricity and removed electric wires run in the shanty towns at the request of the inter-denominational Operation Friendship, to facilitate the bulldozing.
Police detachments moved into both squatter areas shortly after 9 a.m. yesterday.

ORDERED OUT
At Foreshore Road, police ordered the Rev Henry Muir, president of the United Liberal Party, out of the area. He had been chanting mockery at the clergy, daring them to lead the citizens in blocking the path of the bulldozers.

The four machines used in yesterday’s eight-hour operation moved into action first at the Industrial Terrace squatter settlement — the remainder of Back-o-Wall.
Opposition Senator Dudley Thompson, QC, told The Gleaner he hired trucks and had appealed to Denham Town police to delay bulldozing there for a few hours so the squatters could clear out. But his request was turned down, he said.

A police spokesman asserted that only the Ministry of Housing could instruct a further delay in demolition.

And so, the machines swung into action, clearing everything in their path — shacks, furniture, crockery, and other belongings — piling them into massive heaps for burning.

At the area east of Industrial Terrace, also bordered by Spanish Town Road and Mammoth Highway, Tivoli Gardens, the only buildings remaining after four hours of bulldozing were Forbes’ Saw Mill and Lumber Yard, Caribbean Luggage and Garment Co Ltd., Billings Mattress Co Ltd., and Bailey and Reynolds Iron Works.

UNPLANNED FIRE
All but one building on the western side of Industrial Terrace was razed. This was a shack housing the office and storeroom of a garage owned by 48-year-old ex-serviceman Benjamin Clarke of 17 Drummond Street.

At Industrial Terrace, there was at least one fire not set by the Public Works crews.
A fire started between Billings and Reynolds Iron Works while the bulldozers were in action. The fire quickly spread and only the concrete east wall of Billings saved it from destruction.

Towering black smoke swept through windows of the company building and other businesses in the area, forcing closures.

But 20 firefighters from the York Park Brigade, headed by Assistant Superintendent Richard Brown, controlled the flames and prevented the fire from spreading.
The bulldozing crews moved on to Foreshore Road after lunch, flattening and heaping the shacks, trees, and everything else in their path. They withdrew near 5 o'clock.

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