Trudy Simpson, Staff reporterTwo Jamaican children were on Friday killed in a fire which gutted the bedroom in which they were playing in Brooklyn, New York.
The two playmates, Latanya Fuller and Devante Dunne, both four years old, were pronounced dead at hospital after thick smoke prevented rescuers from reaching them in an apartment on 552 Lafayette Avenue, confirmed Sergeant Richard Kemmler from the Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information, in New York, the police's information arm.
Authorities are still investigating, but preliminary reports indicate that the fire was accidental, as a match and a lighter were found at the site, Sgt. Kemmler said yesterday.
Meanwhile, the after-effects of the children's death are being felt hundreds of miles away. Latanya's uncle, Michael Cotterell, who lives in Jamaica, told The Sunday Gleaner that he had not slept since Friday night.
"She and her mother went up last year to look a better life and this is what happened," he said. "I find it difficult to believe that she is dead."
His voice hoarse, Mr. Cotterell said that he could not cry because he had to be strong for the rest of the family, numbering about 15, living in close proximity to each other in Braeton, Phase I, St. Catherine.
"(Latanya) was very loving, very kind. When she and the other kids are playing and they fall down and get hurt, she would run over and hush them," he continued.
Another relative hurriedly booked a ticket to New York, desperate to assist Kareen Simms, Latanya's mother, who Mr. Cotterell said, was in shock and inconsolable.
A New York newspaper reported that relatives also mourned and neighbours held hands and prayed outside the Brooklyn home while others lit candles and placed flowers and a white teddy bear on the concrete steps leading to the apartment.
Mr. Cotterell told The Sunday Gleaner that Latanya and her parents were very close to Devante's family. They had kept her in the same kindergarten class as Devante and allowed them to play together each day after school, although Latanya's family had moved to another area.
