By EARYEL BOWLEG 

Tribune Staff Reporter 

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

AN Abaco mother hopes the family of 12-year-old Montana Ferguson can one day forgive her after he died in a fire at her Crown Haven home.

Montana, a close friend of her son, was spending the weekend — his first sleepover at the Scott’s house — when flames ripped through the residence around 3am on Monday.

Oceanna Scott, 41, said she was not at home when the blaze began but rushed back after being called.

“I just looked around and hollered for everybody,” she told The Tribune. She said she was able to find her 23-year-old daughter and son, but not Montana. She could not explain why the boy, who slept alongside his friend, didn’t make it out of the home.

She said both of her children are too traumatised to talk about what they saw. “Every time I mention it, they start crying, so I just don’t want to make it worse,” she said.

The tragedy, she added, has left her unable to eat or sleep. Her son, who is still coughing heavily from smoke inhalation, is struggling with the loss, compounded by the recent death of his father. In addition to the grief, the family is also facing the loss of what they considered their “dream home,” which they moved into just a year ago after saving up. The house was uninsured.

Montana and Ms Scott’s son had been friends for about two years, bonding over fishing, diving and basketball.

Ms Scott said she has tried to reach out to the boy’s relatives but they appeared to be too angry and traumatised to talk to her.

Meanwhile, Montana’s family said they remain hurt and frustrated by unanswered questions. His aunt, Jacqueline Duncombe, said the boy’s mother has not heard directly from Ms Scott.

“We don’t want to hear from her daughter,” Ms Duncombe told The Tribune. “My sister wanted to hear from her personally. She sent her daughter to the house and the daughter came down pretending to cry, then lashing out.”

She added that the family was unsettled by what she described as conflicting accounts from Ms Scott’s daughter. “First, she told me she got up to go pee, then she see the fire on the wall, and she tried outing it, and she ran out of the house,” she said. “Then she tell me that she wake up her brother to help her out the fire. The story just not adding up. It’s not making any sense.”

Ms Duncombe said what hurts the most is knowing how well her sister cared for Ms Scott's son when he visited her home.

“My sister make sure that he is straight, he is happy, that he eat,” she said. “She take care of him like he’s her own, and she takes him back home safe and sound.”

She also questioned why Ms Scott did not tell Montana’s mother immediately about the fire. “Why they couldn’t give her the relief, to ease some of the tension and give her a phone call to say that ‘I know sad news, but our house is burning down and your son is stuck?’ You didn’t even give her that,” she said.

Relatives described Montana’s mother as “heartbroken” and “empty inside”; she has not been able to view her son’s remains and is still waiting to be told when they will be released.

Ms Duncombe said she shared a close bond with her nephew and recalled

her last memory of him, which was from Saturday when he visited her home.

“I hugged him, and I usually take my hand and rub his hair,” she said. “I always told him he had beautiful hair and I kissed him, and he smiled. He was so happy. Every time I sit in my front room chair, that’s all I could see is him just walking in here with that beautiful smile.”