WILFRED Chattergoon held his head between his hands and wept, as he sat on the side of the road, expressing guilt and hopelessness that he was not present when fire gutted his family Gasparillo home, claiming the lives of his mother, daughter, and pregnant niece-in-law on Saturday morning.
His mother, Evelina Miller, 74, daughter, Amy Chattergoon, five, six-month pregnant niece-in-law Tender Grant, 22, along with her unborn baby, perished in the blaze which started in one of the bedrooms in the two-storey wooden and concrete structure. Fourteen people lived in the home which consisted of two adjoining buildings, separated only by a door.
His sister, Kimberly Chattergoon, 16, who suffered 70 per cent burns about her body, is warded at the ICU of the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH). His aunt, Rosetta Bramble, 55, who suffers with high blood pressure was also taken to the hospital for treatment.
Tre Chattergoon, Grant’s partner, was too distraught to speak to the media as he too wept bitterly on the side of the road, comforted by family members and relatives.
He contradicted initial fire reports which claimed three perished in the blaze.
“It’s not three. It’s four. My girlfriend was pregnant. It was our first child,” was all he could muster before he broke down and had to be led away.
[caption id="attachment_961673" align="alignnone" width="454"] Amy Chattergoon -[/caption]
Amy was the last of three daughters for Chattergoon and Alisa Jaikaran, 37. It is believed she suffocated in her sleep and fell to the bottom of the building as the wooden flooring burned.
Chattergoon, who puffed on a cigarette as if to garner strength as he continuously bent his head and wiped tears with a towel draped around his neck, told Sunday Newsday, “You know what is hurting most and I can’t do nothing about it? I wasn’t there.
“I was not at home to do anything. That is what killing me. I wasn’t home to lift a finger to save my mother or my daughter. Without me being home, they did not stand a chance,” he cried while being interviewed at 181 Caratal Road, Gasparillo.
Chattergoon was spending the night at the SFGH with another one of his three daughters, Ariana, eight, who suffered an asthma attack earlier that evening.
“I was not at home. I was at the hospital with my daughter who is asthmatic. Just after 10 or 11 pm, my mother and them (relatives) came to the hospital to drop off something for me to eat.
“Everybody talk. Mom was so joyful and happy, making jokes. I did not know that was the last time I would talk to my mother and my little daughter,” he broke down again.
“I was just dozing off when I got a phone call after they left. I heard my sister screaming in the background that the house was on fire. I fell. I feint right there in the hospital. When I recovered I came up the road to see this,” he pointed to the burnt out structure on the opposite side of the road.
“All my life I lived here. I am 40-years-old. My navel string buried here. I never went to the hospital. A midwife delivered me right her
