I TRIED TO SAVE HIM
Grieving L.I. parents detail blast that killed baby
Grieving dad’s heartbreaking tale of how his toddler son died in house explosion
IT WAS a picture-perfect family moment.
A beaming Rah-Quan Palmer, only 18 months old, was running back and forth between his young parents — giggling as he dove onto their chests.
Playing on the TV in their Long Island bedroom was Rah-Quan’s favorite cartoon: “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
But in an instant, the tranquil scene transformed into unimaginable horror.
An explosion flattened the two-story home in Brentwood, pinning Rah-Quan and his parents, Rashamel and Christina Palmer, under a pile of rubble.
Out of the darkness, Rashamel Palmer, 28, heard his baby’s faint cries.
“I was trying to push up with everything I got in me, but it just wasn’t good enough,” a devastated Palmer told the Daily News Friday night.
“All I heard was him crying and her calling, ‘The baby! The baby!’ and I’m trying and I’m trying.”
“I didn’t know what happened,” added Palmer. “I tried to take the rubble off of both of them with everything I had in me. I tried.”
Hours later, after the Palmers and their baby were pulled from the ruins, they received the news they feared most: Rah-Quan was dead.
Three days after his home was blown to smithereens, Rashamel Palmer recounted his desperate efforts to save his baby.
Tuesday’s blast, sparked by a pair of 200-pound propane tanks, injured a total of 17 people.
Rashamel, whose family lived on the ground floor of the multiunit home, said he called his mother in Atlanta to wish her a happy birthday that afternoon. Then he went down to play with his son.
“And 20 minutes later, ‘Boom!’ ” Palmer said.
“I thought it was over. I really did. Just having all that stuff come down on you, and it’s more and more and more.”
Pinned down, Christina Palmer grasped for a way out.
“I didn’t know what to think. I was just praying,” said the 23-year-old mom. “I was hoping we all get out of there.”
Christina was the first to be pulled out. Rashamel came next.
Finally, an EMS worker sprinted from the debris, carrying Rah-Quan.
“I just remember the lady say- ing, ‘I found the baby! I got the baby!’ ” Christina said.
“She ran and put him in the ambulance. I kept asking about him, but they wouldn’t let me see him.”
Added Rashamel: “The firefighter was slapping me, saying ‘Stay with me, stay with me.’ I remember just saying, ‘ Where is my son? Where is my son?’ ”
Rashamel suffered a concussion and deep bruises on his right arm.
Doctors needed about 10 staples to close a nasty gash on Christina’s head.
A funeral service for Rah-Quan is scheduled for Wednesday at the Joseph A. Slinger-Hasgill funeral home in Amityville, which donated its services.
But the Palmers don’t have the money to pay for a burial.
The young parents, both unem- ployed, said the explosion left them with nothing.
But for now, that’s not what’s on their mind.
“No. 1 on my list is burial for the baby,” Rashamel Palmer said. “Just pray for us. Just pray for us.”
Anyone who would like to donate to Rah-Quan’s burial can visit: http://www.gofundme.com/124iic