Futile effort to escape

AN ELDERLY disabled woman, who moved around by crawling on her hands and knees, died during the early morning hours yesterday when she sustained major burns about the body in a fire at her humble wooden home in Penal.

Police sources said Doolarie Mungroo, 81, said she crawled through her burning house at Ramcharan Trace in San Francique, Penal and collapsed into the hands of shocked relatives where she died shortly after.

The fire broke out at around 2.30 am at the woman’s small, wooden house where she lived alone. Her brother Lincoln said Mungroo’s husband died ten years ago and she never had children.

He added that his sister was stricken with severe arthritis which made one of her legs virtually unusable and was in the habit of crawling to move around.

Another relative Yodhan Mungroo, 56, said he was awakened around 2.30 am when he saw the bright light of the fire at Mungroo’s home next door.

“I saw fire in Doolarie’s bedroom and woke up my wife.

“When we reached the house we saw her by a barrel in the gallery,” he said. Police believe the fire was started when a kerosene lamp which the elderly woman used, fell and broke. By the time she crawled out of the house, Mungroo had major burns about her feet, back and hands.

Yodhan’s wife Rohanie and another female relative, lifted the elderly woman and placed her under a fig tree in the yard. Within ten minutes, Mungroo was dead. Yodhan told Newsday another relative promised to have the victim’s home wired for electricity but this was never done.

“If the wiring was done, maybe she would still be alive today,” Yodhan said. The body was removed to the San Fernando Mortuary. Penal police are continuing investigations.