Burnt officer remains critical

A police officer who was badly burnt in an apartment fire continues to be in a critical but stable condition at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. New information coming to Newsday has indicated that the fire which has burnt 56 percent of the officer's body, was ignited during a domestic dispute.

Well placed sources said, at about 1.15 am on Sunday last, 40-year-old Sherwin Lela, an officer based at the Port of Spain CID was at his home at Building 12, Apt D, Fourth Avenue, Oropune Gardens, Arouca, along with a female relative and a six-year-old boy when an argument broke out between Lela and the female companion. The companion was told to leave the apartment, and while she was packing clothes away, she smelled smoke, then heard Lela scream out.

The woman checked and saw one of the rooms of the house on fire. The panicked woman grabbed the child and escaped the apartment though one of the windows of the apartment, then lowered herself and the child to the window of the lower apartment. The police officer, although badly burnt, also managed to escape the burning apartment alive and was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, where he was treated. Newsday understands that the man is now suffering from burns to his back, chest, abdomen, and face. Although he is in a critical condition, doctors are of the belief that he may recover.

Newsday contacted president of the Police Social and Welfare Association president Michael Seales, but he refused to comment on the matter.

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"Burnt officer remains critical"

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