‘Dark tornado with flames’
3rd body recovered in Qns. fire, son of first 2 vics
The body of a Queens man killed alongside his parents in a raging house fire was recovered Saturday from the rubble of their basement apartment, nearly 24 hours after the wind-whipped blaze that tore through four adjoining homes, authorities said.
Searchers in the South Ozone Park wreckage located Devon Harripersaud, 23, in the early afternoon, ending the grim search for his remains following the Friday afternoon five-alarm blaze, FDNY sources told the Daily News.
The bodies of his parents — Nandarag Harripersaud, 60, and wife Salley Rajab, 50 — were found Friday around 10 p.m., about eight hours after the lethal fire began.
“Everybody [else] got out of the building, but they were still in the basement,” explained Nandarag’s sister Mohanie Persaud, 50. “... What are you going to do? Things like this happen and you just cope with it.”
Her brother Gyaanadeo Harripersaud told The News that the family’s apartment was filled with debris and water poured onto the flames, complicating the search for Devon’s remains in the three-story residence.
Fire officials and neighbors described a fast-moving fire that spread to two adjoining buildings and two more across the street, with more than 200 firefighters and EMS workers responding before the blaze was brought under control nearly three hours after the first call.
One witness told The News the blaze resembled “a dark tornado but with flames” as it wreaked havoc on both sides of the street in the blink of an eye. The fire went to five alarms in less than 45 minutes after the FDNY arrived on the scene.
Fifteen local residents were under Red Cross care after their homes were burned out, according to a police source. Three of the buildings were destroyed, the FDNY said.
Five firefighters suffered minor injuries while battling the flames, and the cause of the fire remained under investigation by the fire marshals, authorities said.
Persaud said her brother and his wife were married for more than 30 years, with Nandarag retired from his job at a Long Island pharmaceutical company due to health problems.
Salley worked at Kennedy Airport providing wheelchair assistance for passengers, she added.
Witness Taony Nagamootoo recounted a chilling scene in which smoke was followed by a quick flash before flames burst through the front door of the burning building.
The heavy winds quickly spread the fire to the homes on either side and then to a pair of residences across the street, he said.
Embers floating from the burning house set Nagamootoo’s home ablaze, he said.
Neighbor Radat Singh, who lived next door to the fire building, said her daughterin-law was in the shower when the smoke began pouring into their home.
“When she ran out, it was all flames,” said Singh, whose home was gutted by the flames.
“My house is like a skeleton. Everything is gone.”