Nigel Ruben, a 35-year-old Trinidadian, was burnt to death in a fire in Brooklyn, New York, on Sunday morning. A second person, identified as Lascelles Campbell, 45, also perished in the same blaze. According to one witness, "The house was engulfed in flames, it was crazy, there was fire everywhere."
Fire officials said the men were badly burnt in the blaze, which broke out before 5 am. "You had a fire go through the whole place, it's a residential house," said fire-fighter Chris Larney, a Fire Department spokesman.
He said about 135 fire-fighters battled the three-alarm fire, bringing it under control by 6.20 am. Nine fire-fighters suffered minor injuries, he said, and the cause remained under investigation. On Sunday afternoon, Steve Ruben, Nigel's brother, was standing outside the gutted house, where filthy water still filled the gutters and a bloodstain marked the sidewalk. "One of the tenants who used to live on the same floor as my brother, he called me this morning," said Steve, 29.
He added that he, his brother and a sister arrived in New York from Trinidad 23 years ago. "He's going to be missed dearly," he said of his brother. "It's just so sad that he died this way." According to Ruben, his brother, who worked as a carpet installer, had been a tenant in the house for two years. Some neighbours said they tried to help the occupants before the fire trucks arrived. "I heard screaming, like glass dropping on the floor, at 4.30," said Kissoondial Bissoondial, a plumber who lives next door, at 3916 Avenue K, Flatbush Avenue. "When I got up off my bed, the fire was at the last window," he said. "It wasn't that big when I saw it."
Bissoondial tried to enter the burning building, helped by Rene Baez, another neighbour and the occupants of a passing car who stopped to help. "We kicked down the door, and some people screamed for help," Bissoondial said. The flames, however, were too fierce for them to enter. The would-be rescuers heard shouting from above. "We told them to jump, break the window and jump, but nobody responded," Bissoondial said.
