Trini father burnt to death in Queens

A TRINIDADIAN man was burnt to death while his son was seriously injured after fire ripped through their apartment in Queens, New York, last Sunday. Ashram Katwaroo, 49, of  Liberty Avenue, Richmond Hill, was trapped in his third-floor apartment during the blaze. By the time 60 firefighters from 12 units arrived at the apartment just after 2:30 am, Katwaroo had died of burns. His son, Adrian, 19, a drummer with a calypso band, suffered third-degree burns and was reported to be in a critical condition at the burn unit at New York Weill Cornell Centre, where he was transferred from Jamaica Hospital Medical Centre. It appeared that the fire, which was put out at 3:06 am, was set off by an accelerant that had been ignited in the building’s ground-floor vestibule, police and fire officials said. The cause remains under investigation.

Officials said three firefighters and another person whose identity could not be confirmed were taken to Jamaica Hospital with minor injuries.
The fire also damaged the Al-Amin Grocery and Meat Market on the building’s street level. Ernesto Valdez, who lives on the second floor, said he was watching television in his living room just before 2:30 am when his children ran in yelling, “Fire! Fire!” He raced upstairs to warn Katwaroo, who lived with Adrian and a daughter, Linda, 24, and found the hallway engulfed in smoke and flames. “I was knocking on the door, but the kids couldn’t hear me,” said Valdez, whose home was destroyed and beard and eyelashes were nipped by the flames. “I tried opening the door.  It was too hot.”

Later, after he escaped through a neighbour’s window, Valdez saw firefighters remove Adrian Katwaroo. “He looked bad. He looked burned up,” said Valdez, whose three children, all in their teens, leaped from rear windows after being woken by smoke and flames. Along with at least five other people who were in his apartment, Valdez escaped through a window leading to an adjacent roof landing. They smashed a neighbour’s second-floor kitchen window and emerged inside an apartment in the next building. “I opened my home to them,” said Ana Gonzalez, 53, a disabled homemaker who was awakened by the sound of crashing glass and found a trail of blood caused by the glass in her kitchen. “That was their salvation,” Gonzalez said. “When we fight for our lives, we do anything.”

On the first floor, water and smoke damage left the Al-Amin Grocery and Meat Market in shambles. Corn kernels were scattered among a mound of ash-strewn debris, including items that had fallen from above — mangled window frames and a soiled teddy bear. “The store is totally destroyed,” said manager Ahbib Urrrahman, 41. “I don’t know how we’ll start up again.” Customers came by the building yesterday, eyeing the aftermath in shock. “It’s really awful — we have nowhere else to shop,” said Farida Thuly, 12, who came with her mother to buy Halal meat, which is a staple of local Bangladeshi Muslims. “We have to take a train and a bus now to go somewhere else.” Property records identify the owner of the building as Sahai Suidass of South Ozone Park. He could not be reached for comment. Friends of Adrian Katwaroo stopped by the apartment on their way to the hospital yesterday afternoon. A self-taught musician, Katwaroo, who emigrated from Trinidad with his family several years ago, had played with his band at cultural festivals at Lincoln Centre and in Queens. He also travelled to Florida and Minnesota for performances. “We are praying for him to be alive,” said Vinod Bisram, the leader of the Angels Caribbean Band. “He’s really critical now.”