It was early Sunday morning when a landlord in Hopkins realized there was black smoke emitting from the window of his tenant's apartment. A fire had started inside the building - one that would take the life of 39-year-old Jin Deng Tang, an Asian restaurant owner. It was a tragedy that the landlord tried hard to prevent but today, all he could do was clean out the blackened remains of Tang's belongings, especially since the victim didn't have any known family. Courtney Menzies traveled south to the scene of the fire and found out more. Here's that story.
An Asian businessman perished in a fire that started in his apartment in Hopkins Village yesterday morning. 39-year-old Jin Deng Tang had been renting this building, which also housed his business, Rainbow Restaurant, for seven years. His landlord, Kimani Williams, said he had no issues with Tang - whom he only knew as "Tom" - and he tried his best to save his tenant's life.
Voice of: Kimani Williams, Landlord
"I was just sitting there on the couch and something just told me get up and go into the bathroom and look over the property. I saw smoke coming out of the back building, to which I thought someone lit the garbage bin behind the building, because we have a garbage bin behind the building. So I came out and tried to put the fire out and when I got to the side of the building I saw smoke coming out of the side of the window and I took a quick two second video of the smoke coming out of the window and I came back around, put my hands against the glass, and I felt the heat coming out of the glass. It was super hot, it was not right, did not feel right. So I picked up a rock and started banging on the door, shouting for him."
A passing special constable was the one who called the police, and they, along with other neighbors arrived shortly after. Williams broke two windows, but the smoke was too thick to see anything. That's when they went for the door.
Voice of: Kimani Williams, Landlord
"The guys came over with a sledgehammer and I took the front gate down, took down the front door, I think about thirty minutes after I took down the front door, there were firefighters here. And from there, they took over. After they got the fire out and controlled, they found his body on the other side of the building, on the other side of the ground. He was not burnt, turns out he just suffocated."
And while reports are that it was a cigarette near the bed that caused the fire, the only thing the police confirmed today was that it started in that section of the building.
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Officer
"On the 27th March 2022 at about 2 a.m. police responded to a fire at rainbow restaurant located on the southside of Hopkins village where they saw a one flat concrete building measuring about 40feet in length, totally engulfed in flames, initial investigation so far has revealed that sometime among 1:45 AM one of the occupants of that building Kimani Williams tried to get the attention of the owner of the building, Mr. Jin Deng Tan, a 39-year-old businessman and was unsuccessful. Mr. Williams is saying that he was awoken by the smell of smoke in his apartment and immediately called for fire and police personnel. He is saying that when the fire was extinguished and they made checks at Mr. Tan's section of the building that he occupied they found his body motionless, no. He has since been transported to the southern regional hospital where he was pronounced dead and is now awaiting a postmortem examination. He lived, he lived alone in his apartment."
"Well I didn't get any update about the rest of the building so far but we know that indications are that the fire started at his apartment."
And Tang was not known to socialize - keeping only to himself. In the seven years he lived in that apartment, very little was known about him:
Voice of: Kimani Williams, Landlord
"He was cool, most days, he would come out, find us hanging out in the yard having a drink and he would just come around and push jokes to us, you know, like, all you guys do is drink and fish. You guys have nothing else to do? We're like, dude please go back to your restaurant, but you could have a drink with us. We always tried to make him drink with us but he never wants to."
"One thing's for sure, he loves fish. He was an avid fish lover, every time I go fishing, he was like, dude I need some fish. From what we get to understand, he had no family in the country, which I think is kind sad, it's a terrible way to die."
Tang had previously operated a business in Miami Beach, Hopkins with another Asian proprietor, who had reportedly committed suicide.
