GIRL, 3, DIES IN FIRE

EIGHT-MONTHS pregnant, Stacy Amoroso clutched her swollen belly and collapsed on the Marac Main Road in La Lune, Moruga screaming in grief after being told her three-year-old daughter Angela, had perished in a fire which destroyed the family’s Moruga home yesterday. At the time of the fire Amoroso was attending maternity clinic in San Fernando. “Allyuh, I want meh child! She asked me to bring her a roti and some ice cream. Allyuh could ah break down de door,” Amoroso bawled as villagers and relatives attempted to restrain the crying woman in an effort to prevent her from causing harm to herself and her unborn child. Eventually, Amoroso was taken by ambulance to the Gran Chemin Health Centre for treatment and observation after she lapsed into a daze and appeared to be in shock. She also complained of abdominal pains.

And while police and villagers were calling Amoroso’s adopted brother Anderson Gay a hero, after he ran into the burning house and rescued Amoroso’s elderly, bedridden mother and one of Amoroso’s young children from certain fiery death, there was no smile on Gay’s face.
The child’s death threw the rural village into shock and mourning. Gay told police that less than ten minutes after he left his infant niece and nephew with their bedridden grandmother to go to a nearby parlour, the house became engulfed in flames. He added that on seeing the smoke and fire, he ran into the burning house and was able to rescue two-year-old Jeremiah Amoroso and his grand-mother Sylvia Barkley, 69, but could not reach three-year-old Angela in time.

Amoroso, 23, left her children and their grandmother in the care of her 25-year-old adopted brother, Anderson while she attended maternity clinic. After receiving the tragic news on her return, some six hours after the fire, the grief-stricken woman threw herself on the ground and cried uncontrollably. Police and fire officers from San Fernando and Princes Town and Moruga, were up to late yesterday on the scene carrying out investigations as to the cause of the blaze. A distraught Gay, who was burnt on his forehead, said his sister did not send Angela to school — yesterday as Amoroso had to attend clinic. He said they woke up Angela and Jeremiah before their mother and aunt, left for the clinic in San Fernando around 5.30 am.

“About half-an-hour later I left my niece and nephew lying on the bed in the back with my bedridden adopted mother in the middle room and went to the parlour to buy bread and other stuff for breakfast,” Gay told Newsday. “I stay about five minutes and when I was coming back a neighbour said the house on fire. I ran in and dragged her (the bed-ridden elderly woman) out of bed and into the living-room and then I run back for my nephew and drop him outside. I took off my jersey because it started to burn,” Gay said. He added that neighbours assisted in taking his elderly mother out of the house. However, when he ran back into the room he did not see Angela.

“I heard her bawl twice and then that was it. I get burn on my head looking for she. I had to run out to save my own life,” he added. Gay said he believed the fire started in the children’s bedroom but had no idea what could have started it. “Nothing was left on. We don’t even have candles in the house,” he added. The estimated cost of damage to the three-bedroom wooden structure along with household items, was put at $140,000. An autopsy on the body is to be carried out. Visiting the scene were Supt Joseph Nathaniel, Insps Hilarie Brereton and Harry, Sgts Hosein and Bill, crime scene expert PCs Rawl Ramdeo and police Veano Ragoo. Sgt Hosein is continuing investigations.