Sascha Wil­son

As a fire of­fi­cer for over 30 years Hi­lar­i­on Ram­lochan was re­gard­ed as a hero, have­ing re­cued and saved the lives of many.How­ev­er, when he need­ed help the law en­force­ment agen­cies and med­ical care ser­vice failed him.For an hour, Ram­lochan, 56, re­mained in his car dy­ing await­ing help af­ter a teak tree fell on the hood of his car on Sat­ur­day near New Grant.Ram­lochan, who re­tired last year as an act­ing fire sub-sta­tion of­fi­cer at Savonet­ta Fire Sta­tion, was pro­nounced dead on ar­rival at the Princes Town Health Fa­cil­i­ty.

Had help ar­rived soon­er, his rel­a­tives be­lieve he might have sur­vived.The in­ci­dent took place while Ram­lochan was head­ing home in his AD wag­on along Robin­son Road, Busy Cor­ner. At Pas­cal Road, where Ram­lochan lived with his wife Pearl and two chil­dren, vil­lagers com­plained that the in­ci­dent was caused by neg­li­gence.Four days ago, they said, there was a bush fire in that area, but the au­thor­i­ties on­ly be­gan cut­ting down the burnt trees near the road af­ter Sat­ur­day's ac­ci­dent.

The roots of the tree which fell on Ram­lochan's car were burnt.An­oth­er vil­lager, Bran­don Sam­s­ingh, es­caped in­jury yes­ter­day morn­ing af­ter an­oth­er tree fell and hit the side of his car in the same area.David Boodoo, a res­i­dent, who ar­rived sec­onds af­ter the ac­ci­dent said Ram­lochan was con­scious and gasp­ing for breath, but his neck ap­peared bro­ken.

He said he prayed with Ram­lochan, who was re­spon­sive, while they wait­ed. "This whole sce­nario took place at 8.45 am and it was a bit dis­ap­point­ing to know that the fire brigade and am­bu­lance and po­lice re­spond al­most one hour af­ter. From New Grant and Princes Town it would take me 15 to 20 min­utes."His son Sean, who turns 28 to­day, ar­rived af­ter­wards and al­so prayed with his fa­ther and told him to make peace with the Lord.

Sean com­plained about the slow and in­sen­si­tive re­sponse by the para­medics. "From the mo­ment they put him in the am­bu­lance they gave up on him."Iron­i­cal­ly, Hi­lar­i­on's daugh­ter Can­dice, 27, said was a hero al­ways sav­ing peo­ple.Her broth­er said on count­lesss oc­ca­sions he res­cued peo­ple in­volved in ac­ci­dents.

For the past cou­ple of years, Sean said, his fa­ther had ded­i­cat­ed his life to the church. "One mes­sage he al­ways giv­ing in the last cou­ple of months is to change your life and give your life to Christ," Can­dice said.An au­top­sy is ex­pect­ed to be per­formed to­day at the mor­tu­ary of the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.Table­land po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.