DEADLY FUMES

SHANE SUPERVILLE and STACY MOORE

ACCIDENTAL poisoning, caused by deadly fumes which seeped through the wooden flooring of nine-year-old Sharma Motilal’s bedroom is what led to the youngster’s death, an autopsy has revealed.

Police sources said poor ventilation, fumes from PVC pipe fittings and smoke from a lighted “cockset” (mosquito coil) combined to create the setting for little Sharma breathing in poisoned air as he slept at his Kandahar Village, Mayaro home on Wednesday night.

When his parents Suresh and Sally Motilal tried to wake him up at 6 am on Thursday so he could prepare for school, Sharma was unresponsive and barely breathing. In another bedroom, his younger brother Narad, eight, was also unresponsive.

The frightened parents took both boys to the Mayaro Health Centre where Sharma was pronounced dead on arrival. Narad was transferred to the Sangre Grande District Hospital where he was treated and remained warded up to press time yesterday.

An autopsy by Pathologist Dr Hughvon des Vignes revealed death by accidental poisoning.

Police sources told Newsday that while investigations are ongoing, no foul play is suspected in the schoolboy’s death.

The boys’ grandmother Molly Ramlakhan told Newsday on Thursday evening that because the house is located near to swampland, it is the norm to keep bedroom windows and doors closed at all times to keep swarms of mosquitoes from entering. A “cockset” was used to keep whatever of the disease-carrying insects which managed to get in the bedrooms, at bay.

Police sources said that PVC pipe was burnt in the yard but not properly doused. This led to fumes from the smouldering pile of burnt PVC fittings, seeping through the wooden flooring and into the boys’ bedrooms. At 1 am on Thursday, electricity went in the village which led to fans in the boys’ rooms to stop working. Officers described the circumstances which led to Sharma’s death as tragic and unfortunate.

While the boys’ parents declined to be interviewed yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre, other relatives who were at home, said the hardest thing now was to break the news of Sharma’s death to his brother Narad.

The two were inseparable and did almost everything together, relatives said.

Up to yesterday, the parents had not told Narad about his brother’s death. A relative said Suresh and Sally are waiting for Narad to fully recover and be discharged from hospital before they break the tragic news to him.

“They can’t tell him that now. How can they? They are waiting till he has recovered,” the relative said. He added that yesterday morning doctors took blood samples from Narad for tests. Mayaro police are continuing investigations.