Raffie buried, sister still in hospital

STILL recuperating at the San Fernando General Hospital, Nazra Baksh could not attend the funeral of her younger brother, Raffie Mohammed, 47, whom she tried to save from the family’s burning house on Monday.

Mohammed who had Down Syndrome, was burnt to death. He was laid to rest at the San Francique cemetery after a funeral at Tulsa Branch Trace, Penal.

“I wish I could have been there to tell him goodbye but I am here,” an emotional Baksh told Newsday before the funeral.

Mohammed’s charred remains were in a white coffin with his photograph on top. Relatives told Newsday Baksh is to have surgery tomorrow. Her back, leg and face were badly burned when she ran into the burning house.

Baksh lived across the road from her brother and mother. She was home at the time of the fire and ran into the burning house after hearing her brother screaming, and found him sitting on the ground crying. Baksh tried to drag her brother outside, but, she said, he was confused and frightened and could not move. A villager pulled Baksh out of the burning house.

Raffie was the youngest of nine siblings and lived with their 87-year-old mother Shairoon Mohammed, whose hands were burned in the fire. A caretaker, Judy Toll, was also in the house.

Police reported that the fire started in a back room. Shairoon told police she saw sparks outside the house hours before the fire. The cause has not yet been ascertained and Siparia police are investigating.

Speaking at the funeral, an imam told mourners that one day everyone would die and urged them to try not to live a life of regret and not to worship material possessions.