(Trinidad Express) 16-year-old schoolgirl who suffered severe burns in a fire that killed three family members on Saturday, died at the San Fernando General Hospital yesteday.
Kimberly Chattergoon, a pupil of Southern Academy Secondary School, was being treated in the hospital’s intensive care unit for burns to 70 per cent of her body.
Her father, Louis Chattergoon, said relatives were informed that Kimberly’s condition had worsened overnight, and they were on their way to the hospital when news came that she had passed around 2.35 a.m.
Kimberly lived with her grandmother, Everline Miller, and other relatives in Caratal Road, Gasparillo.
Miller, 72, her five-year-old granddaughter, Amy Chattergoon, and pregnant granddaughter-in-law, La Keisha Grant, 22, all died in the fire.
Relatives said Kimberly was in the washroom when the fire started around 2.15 a.m. on Saturday.
Her father said: “I don’t live with her; she has been living with her grandmother since she was young. But I was told that she went to the washroom and then the grandmother called out that there was a fire. Kimberly tried to help her grandmother, and when she realised it was too much for her she ran out.”
Relatives said Kimberly ran out to the roadway and showed her aunt, Rosetta Bramble, the burns on her legs and arms.
“She called out to me and started pointing at all the burns on her body. She said it was feeling like ants biting,” Bramble said.
Louis Chattergoon said his family was devastated by the tragedy. “That was my baby. She was the last of my three children. I went to see her yesterday, and she was breathing but not responding to me. I didn’t think I would lose her,” he said.
Chattergoon said he last spoke with his daughter on Father’s Day when she called him on the phone. “I was at work and she called me. We spoke for a while and we promised to meet up and spend some time together,” he said.
Preliminary investigations revealed the fire may have started in an electrical outlet in a bedroom.
Relatives said the fire quickly spread throughout the wooden and concrete house, trapping the elderly woman and her five-year-old granddaughter inside.
Grant, who was six months’ pregnant, was almost out of the burning house when she turned around and ran back inside to help Miller and the child.
Fire officials said the three were burnt beyond recognition.
