51-yr.-old father of 3 dies in Queens inferno

A 51-YEAR-OLD man died in a fire in his Queens home Sunday.

Firefighters got a call about a blaze in the detached garage of a home on Edgewood Ave. near Brookville Blvd. in Rosedale at 8 a.m., officials said.

They found Douglas Reid, a handyman and father of three, unconscious and unresponsive with burns all over his body. Medics rushed him to Franklin General Hospital, but he could not be saved, cops said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Reid’s family members comforted each other on the steps of his home, just in front of the garage where the fire took his life.

“I don’t think it has hit us just yet,” said niece Jeanova Bailey, 28, who called 911 after she came home from work and saw the smoke. “There was no helping him, really. We kicked the door down . . . we couldn’t get in.”

Bailey said the firefighters arrived quickly.

“They tried CPR,” she said. “We couldn't go in at all . . . It was very hectic.”

She said her uncle enjoyed quiet mornings in the garage. “He would like to go to the garage, read the paper, drink his coffee,” Bailey said.

She added that the family suspects a gas leak caused the deadly inferno.

“He would take out the trash. He would shovel when it would snow,” said another niece, Renisha Gapo, 26. “He’s a good father.”