Heartache as boy, 2, dies in Morvant fire

TWO-year-old Kimani Douglas died in a fire in Morvant on Monday afternoon.

His grieving mother, Krystal Braithwaite, fell to her knees in agony outside the family’s home at Petunia Avenue, off Coconut Drive, as she waited for undertakers to take his body out of the gutted house.

Douglas was trapped in a room on the first floor of the house when the fire broke out. The mother of three stood her ground even in the pouring rain.

The child’s grand-uncle told Newsday, he was at home with Kimani and the child’s older siblings, ages 5 and 7, as their mother left to go out for a short while. He said he and Kimani were in the upstairs portion of the house while the other two boys were downstairs when one of them ran up and told him there was a fire.

“I ran to see where the fire was but by the time I got downstairs the fire had already engulfed the entire downstairs. I couldn’t get back upstairs. I would just like to see the boy,” Stanislaus said with tears in his eyes.

Stanislaus and the two older boys were able to escape while Kimani remained trapped. Stanisclaus said he raised an alarm and residents came to help by forming a bucket brigade.

The fire services were also called and appliances from San Juan and Port of Spain responded but by the time they got there, the house was already gutted. Kimani’s body was found in the bedroom he was last seen in.

Newsday was told the Morvant Fire Station which received the distress call at about 12.30 pm, had no appliances.

Residents were also saddened by the boy’s death and one by one they gathered at the scene, crying for Kimani.

The boy’s father and other relatives had to be restrained when they tried to rush into the house.

“You don’t understand,” a grieving relative said. “We eh too long lose two brothers.”

In 2014, nine-year-old Jadel Holder and 15-year-old Jamal Braithwaite, relatives of Krystal Braithwaite, were shot dead in the same house.

Relatives described Kimani as a lively, bubbly child. He lived with his elder brothers, mother and uncle.

“He was always walking around and doing everything he could,” said the uncle. “He couldn’t talk much but he was very lively. He was alive.”

Kimani’s third birthday would have been in December.

Neighbours said he was a “sweetheart.”

Investigators are expected to return to the house in an attempt to find out the cause of the fire.