Shas­tri Boodan

Adding in­sult to tragedy, ban­dits yes­ter­day broke in­to the premis­es of Mon Plasir Road, Cunu­pia, fire vic­tims, and stole sev­er­al items from the com­pound.

On Fri­day, An­gela Ali, 53, and her daugh­ter-in-law Am­bi­ka Ali, 30, lost their lives when fire gut­ted their home at Per­sad Av­enue, Mon Plasir Road, Cunu­pia.

Yes­ter­day, Nizam Ali, An­gela’s hus­band, and oth­er rel­a­tives vis­it­ed the site. Nizam said he was hav­ing a hard time com­ing to terms with the sud­den and trag­ic deaths when he got the news from po­lice that crim­i­nal el­e­ments en­tered the gut­ted premise and stole sev­er­al items.

Nizam said, “They stole stuff from the cars; they ran­sacked the cars.”

Nizam said his sons, Javid, 32, and Je­re­my, 29, are not cop­ing well, and they have moved in­to the home of his 85-year-old fa­ther at McIn­roy Street, Curepe.

Nizam said the com­mu­ni­ty had reached out to the fam­i­ly and was as­sist­ing and sup­port­ing them. Nizam said the fu­ner­als would take place at Curepe, and he was get­ting the as­sis­tance of Imam Ho­sei­ni.

The dis­traught man said he was not re­turn­ing to Per­sad Av­enue to live. He said the mem­o­ries are too much to deal with. “I just want to sell that place.”

Je­re­my Ali, the lone sur­vivor of the blaze, said his broth­er and Am­bi­ka would have cel­e­brat­ed their wed­ding an­niver­sary to­day.

‘The screams in my head’

Re­call­ing the tragedy, Je­re­my said around 10.30 to 11 am he woke up and saw his moth­er prepar­ing to make dhal, rice, and bha­jee as the fam­i­ly was plan­ning to cel­e­brate Javid’s birth­day on Fri­day.

Je­re­my said he saw smoke com­ing from the back stock room and alert­ed his moth­er, “Same time she watched out the kitchen win­dow and she saw a big blaze in the garage, and she was like ‘fire, fire, fire.’”

Je­re­my said he called on the women to evac­u­ate the build­ing, and they were right be­hind him ex­it­ing the build­ing. He said af­ter open­ing the door, the fire en­tered the room and start­ed burn­ing all three of them about their bod­ies.

“I run out think­ing they com­ing with me; they tell me ‘just now, just now.’ I said no, no, leh we go, and I run, and I run out­side still get­ting burns. I run out­side be­cause I see the big blaze al­ready, and when I came by the win­dow by the liv­ing room, I saw them there. I said pass round where all yuh come from.

“‘Je­re­my, get me out, get me out from here, I don’t want to die in here,’ my mom was say­ing. Am­bi­ka, my sis­ter-in-law, start­ed to scream; every­thing was trag­ic.”

Je­re­my said he tried break­ing the win­dow and the bur­glar-proof. When he couldn’t open the win­dow, he start­ed to move items from the gallery and was as­sist­ed by a vil­lager.

“I told them to open the latch, open the latch, then I hear my sis­ter-in-law say, ‘That is it they.’” 

Je­re­my said he screamed and called on­ly to see the flames en­gulf­ing the liv­ing room and hear the screams of the two women as they burnt to death.

Je­re­my said he went to school with Am­bi­ka. “All of us were a hap­py fam­i­ly.” He said he was get­ting sup­port from his co-work­ers at Co­ca-Co­la, friends, and rel­a­tives.

“The screams in my head, you can’t fix that part; it’s some­thing you have to live with.”