4-year-old child saved from burning house

A four-year-old child, Aaron Aki, escaped being burnt  to death  Wednesday night, when the small wooden house in which he had been left alone, was burnt completely to the ground. According to reports, the child was left asleep on a bed shortly after 7pm, with two lighted candles and a kerosene lamp inside the building at Fanny Village, Pt Fortin.

Investigators reported that the child’s father was not at home at the time and his mother, Avior Miller, had gone next door to a friend’s home. Shortly after she left, the building became engulfed in flames, trapping Aaron inside. The flames caught the attention of 26-year-old villager, Bobby Ghany, who was at his home located approximately 15 feet away. Ghany, a construction worker, recalled yesterday that he heard his father-in-law screaming: “Fire, fire” and he rushed outside to see his neighbour’s home on fire. He said he heard the child screaming inside, and he rushed in. “I ran inside and picked him up,” Ghany told Newsday. He said when he got into the building he found the child surrounded by smoke and fire. “He was just standing in the hall crying,” Ghany recalled. The young man, who is being hailed in the village as a hero, said he had no time to feel afraid when he ran inside the burning house because his main objective was to save the helpless child.

Aaron’s mother, he said, arrived moments after he saved the child who sustained only minor burns to the face, head and side.  He was treated and discharged from hospital. The mother told police yesterday Aaron was asleep on the bed when she left to visit a nearby neighbour. When she returned 15 minutes later, she said, she saw the house burning and her crying son safely in the arms of a neighbour. The small wooden house valued $8,000 was completely gutted. Investigators said the child was treated for superficial burns at the Point Fortin Hospital. When Newsday visited the area yesterday neighbours said Miller had gone to Point Fortin Borough Council, with her son, to ask for  assistance as all their clothes and valuables had been destroyed in the blaze. PC Richardson is continuing investigations.