THE NO. 43 Jamaica Omnibus Service (JOS) bus that plied the route from Red Hills Road to downtown Kingston was filled with schoolchildren and civil servants on Tuesday, May 20, 1980.

Students heading to Wolmer’s, St Andrew Technical, Kingston Senior School (now Kingston High), and Gaynstead high schools were among the passengers waiting to disembark.

The bus was heading for the usual Slipe Pen Road bus stop that is still about 30 metres across the entrance of the Eventide Home.

He, along with students from Wolmer’s Boys’ and Girls’ schools and Kingston Senior, would disembark at the Slipe Pen Road bus stop.

It was some time later that the death count was tallied and more than 140 destitute and physically challenged women who resided at the state-run Eventide Home perished in the early-morning fire that spread rapidly through the board structures housing them.