Fires are almost everyday occurrences; personal and community disaster unto themselves and on the rare occasion when someone perishes in a fire - well it's a full out tragedy. That's what happened last night, but tonight there is only sparing grief for Gilroy Baird, a homeless, disabled and drug addicted man who lived on the margins of society and died it seems while resting on its ugly underbelly.
How he was killed in the blaze is only half the story, how he lived is a tragedy all its own.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
At around 4:30 this morning fire broke out at this abandoned structure that is really just an four of walls with no roof on it. But even under these conditions there were at least three persons who made this place their home. One of them was 54 year old Gilroy Baird who called this now burnt mattress sheltered by the eaves of the structure his home.
Henry Baizar, Fire Chief
"It wasn't really a house, it was a makeshift place where a number of these homeless people lived and from statements taken from people in the area there were two of them living in that little area right there; both of them in wheel chairs and he was probably lying on his bed. From our investigations, it is revealed that he left a candle in a plastic container on the bed. We have the remains of it and he probably went to sleep and from the way we found his body lying on the bed it seems as though he was succumbed by the smoke or something in his sleep."
Peely, Victim's Neighbour
"He had the candle on a plate and this guy Vega that was in there told him to make sure he out the candle before he go to sleep but Vega himself fell asleep without making sure that Baird out the candle so that's what happened and Vega said when he got up the place was engulfed with fire so he headed towards the door and realized that his friend was in there and turned back but then he could not help him then because the place was too hot."
Henry Baizar,
"After we put out the fire we noticed that there was body lying on the bed dead probably from smoke or from the heat; I really can't say what was the cause of his death but he was dead."
Baird was burnt alive as he was unable to escape the burning mattress because he couldn’t walk; his mobility had been reduced to shuffling around town in this partially burnt wheel chair that today stood desolate and destroyed, the only remaining possession of its owner. Baird's mother says he really had no need to live under these conditions.
Grace Arnold, Baird's Mother
"I know the way he lived it might have happened sometime like that because from the time I figured it out I said he lived in this abandoned place and one of these days fire might break out and he might get burned. He was not a bad boy but he just chose to live that way."
Peely,
"He had a place to stay but he called this home right. Okay but then it's like that's where he felt comfortable so that's where he was gonna be at, it's not like he didn't have a place like his mother or uncle to go and live but just because he chose this type of life that does not make him a bad person."
Grace Arnold,
"He was not rude to me, I could have done him anything and he wouldn't talk back to me or do anything like those young ones nowadays."
Alfonso Noble,
"Could he have returned home?"
Grace Arnold,
"Anytime. I have his clothes I have everything; I bought clothes for him but he behaved like that so he could get money from people and say he was homeless. He would come here, bathe his son, and go out like every two weeks. I would tell him to come like every other week but sometimes he could regular and other times he would stay away."
Peely,
"It's sad but then life goes on."
Alfonso Noble,
"You surprised the man burn up in this manner?"
Peely,
"Most naturally, who wants to see a person suffer like that? Natural death is okay but that's beyond natural death to me; because that's agony while going."
Even after this morning's loss of life there are still vagrants who occupy the remains of the structure at number 39 New Road.