By JOE MOLLICA and ALEX GINSBERG
Posted: 4:09 am
October 13, 2008
Fire swept through a Brooklyn apartment building yesterday, killing a man and his 12-year-old nephew barely a week after they moved in, devastated relatives said.
Shawn Monderson, 33, a bus driver who'd become a US citizen only a few weeks ago, and Ceimon Fraser were trapped when flames broke out in their building on Hancock Street in Bushwick just after midnight.
"He was excited that he had just become a US citizen," said Frederick Monderson, the uncle of the dead man and great-uncle of the boy. "It was quite an achievement. As a young working man, he stepped up and did what he had to do for Ceimon. He was like his father."
He said Shawn Monderson had been looking after Ceimon, a seventh-grader, while the child's parents remained behind in their native Guyana.
The two had moved into the building on Oct. 5 to be closer to the uncle's school-bus route.
The Fire Department said the apartment's smoke detector had been unplugged and its battery removed.
The detector had been inspected six months ago and was working, according to city housing officials.
Neighbors in the three-story building described being awakened by a loud explosion, then fleeing as flames and smoke consumed the structure.
"I was sleeping, and the next thing I heard was someone screaming, 'Get the Fire Department!' " said neighbor William Mitchell, 60.
"The house was in total darkness because of the smoke. I jumped through the back window. If I didn't hear that person screaming, I'd be gone."
The cause of the fire was under investigation.
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