Grief, shock and a deep sense of loss have gripped an East Flatbush community in the heart of Brooklyn after a deadly fire took the lives of two Bajans – a mother and her son.
Eighty-year-old Angela Griffith and her 59-year-old son Wayne Griffith, originally from Farm Road, St Peter, died in the multi-alarm blaze along Kingston Avenue Monday night.
As residents of the predominantly English-speaking Caribbean immigrant neighbourhood pick up the pieces of their daily lives they are also thanking God for being spared following the tragedy.
Reached at his office in Manhattan, Barbados’ Consul-General in New York, Lorenzo Harewood, told the DAILY NATION: “Words cannot describe the tragedy of the deaths of the mother and son.
“Our hearts and sympathy go out to their relatives, friends and acquaintances who are obviously feeling the deep loss of the two victims who in their diverse ways have contributed to the betterment of the neighbours and the two countries – Barbados and the United States.”
It is estimated that more than 100 000 Barbadians live in Brooklyn, many of them in the exact neighbourhood where the Griffiths died.
“I didn’t know them, but I once lived in that neighbourhood,” said a retired Bajan.
Ben Marakowitz Svigals, who lives on the third floor of the afflicted high-rise building said: “It is very tragic.”
It was particularly so, “especially when you know the people”, he told a television news channel.
Another resident recounted: “I open my door, and the hallway was filled with smoke. I realise, [My God, there is a fire! So, I grabbed my keys and tried to run out. I met some firefighters in the hallways; they were knocking on the door to alert people to get out.”
A New York City Fire Department official said they were called to the fire around 11 p.m. and found the building was ablaze. They pulled the two Bajans from the damaged structure and ambulances rushed them to nearby Kings County Medical Centre where doctors were unable to save them.
The fire department is investigating to determine the cause of the fire. ( TB)
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