Teen Hurt In Fire: “I Know Who Set It”
Posted April 25, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Pream Anathrajah is sure someone is out to get him.
But it may not just be paranoia.
After what happened to his family early Wednesday morning, police are also wondering if he’s right.
The 17-year-old, his sister, his brother and his mother were all fast asleep in their Gilroy Dr. home in the Lawrence and Kennedy area around 3am, when Pream woke up to a shocking sight – his sister engulfed in flames.
She and her mother, who works 17 hour days and two jobs, had fallen asleep in front of their TV set when they received the rudest awakening of their lives.
It appears someone used the cover of darkness to light and then throw a Molotov cocktail through their front window.
The two women were both sent to hospital, and it’s feared his mom may have suffered burns to 30 percent of her body. She remains in critical condition.
The teen also suffered smoke inhalation, as everyone struggled to escape the fire.
“I was sleeping, and I woke up,” he told CityNews from his hospital bed. “And I heard my mom yelling and I ran up to her and she was all on fire, [her] back and everything. And I seen my sister and her hands were on fire.”
Pream’s father only missed being added to the list of casualties because he was out delivering papers on his regular route. He arrived home to find his house being consumed by a huge conflagration.
Neighbours were alerted to the emergency and tried to help.
“I found a bucket and like there was some water in it,” recalls Valentin Badea. “I tried to throw some of the bucket through a front window. And I ran to the back, found a hose again.”
Crews battled the flames for hours before bringing it under control. The immediate hunt for evidence yielded plenty of clues and cops quickly declared it a crime scene.
Pream insists it was a flaming bottle of Smirnoff’s Green Apple Vodka that was used to light the fire. It was found lying on the damaged living room floor.
A CityNews cameraman also led police to other damning proof – a gas can and a lighter hidden in the bushes nearby.
So who could have committed such a terrible act? Police aren’t saying, but Pream has his own theory.
He suspects a group of kids that has been terrorizing him at school since last September may have finally taken things to extremes.
And he believes there may be a link with a stabbing that took place the night before at Winston Churchill C.I. A 19-year-old was sent to hospital in that incident, but is being tight-lipped about who attacked him. The victim is a friend of Pream’s.
The fire marshal spent much of the day waiting for the scene to cool down and then sent crews in to sift through the remains looking for more evidence. They may not be able to confirm arson as the cause until Thursday.
In the meantime, police aren’t saying much about the young man’s theory of the crime. They’ve refused to confirm if they’ve talked to any of the classmates Pream seems sure is responsible for the terrible act.
But you can be sure they’re planning to ask them where they were early in the morning when tragedy exploded in a ball of flame and one family’s life changed forever.
