By INDARJIT SEURAJ Wednesday, October 14 2009

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DEADLY BLAZE: Undertakers remove the body of Japanese national Katsuko 'Koko' Yanagimoto after yesterday's fire which gutted her home, the Abercromby ...

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A JAPANESE woman working in Trinidad was burnt to death in an early morning fire yesterday which destroyed a Port-of-Spain hotel and caused extensive damage to a nearby private school.

The fire reportedly started at about 3.30 am at the Abercromby Inn on Abercromby Street. At the time, 16 persons were staying at the hotel but when a head count was taken, it was discovered that Japanese national Katsuko “Koko” Yanagimoto was unaccounted for.

The hotel owner James Thompson and the other guests tried desperately to go back into the inferno on the ground floor where Yanagimoto remained trapped in room G3. Five-and-a-half hours later, undertakers removed the charred remains of the 40-year-old woman whose corpse was found crouched in a corner of her room.

Investigators said her left foot was completely burnt off and they believe she might have died from smoke inhalation before the flames reached her body. The fire completely destroyed the hotel. The newly built multi-media centre at the compound of the adjacent Maria Regina Grade School was also destroyed by the fire.

Among the guests overnighting at the hotel was American couple Shaun and Holly Duffy and Jamaican Martin Nelson. “We were awakened by the alarm,” Shaun said, adding that they did not see any smoke until they started to exit the building.

Holly recalled how she asked her husband to check and see what was going on outside.

“I told him (Shaun) to go outside and see if it was for real and we saw some other people running out,” she said. The couple who had a flight booked for Chicago for yesterday morning, managed to retrieve almost all of their belongings before leaving the burning hotel. Nelson was not so lucky.

“Smoke was coming down through the vent. The entire room was filled with smoke. I tripped on my suitcase and I grabbed it and ran out,” Nelson said as he stood barefoot on Abercromby Street. Losses were put at over $1.5 million.

Abercromby Inn owner James Thompson said he and his wife were awakened by the fire alarm and their main concern after that was the safety of their guests. He said when they realised Yanagimoto had not come out, they tried to go back in for her. “When we went to that area to help her, it was not possible. The heat was too much,” Thompson said.

Thompson said Yanagimoto stayed at the hotel for close to four years, working from her room for an on-line finance company. He described her as a “very nice” person. “She was a very, very quiet person. Very nice,” he said. Up to late yesterday, fire prevention officers from the Fire Services Headquarters on Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, had not determined the cause of the fire. ASP Don Lezama together with Homicide detectives Sgt Michael Veronique and PC De Gale visited the scene.

A PTA meeting will be held at Maria Regina Grade School Friday to discuss the destruction caused by yesterday’s fire. School principal Elizabeth Crouch advised that classes would continue as usual for the Prep school.

She also advised that Grade Five students will be temporarily housed at St Joseph’s Convent, Port-of-Spain, and classes will resume for these students tomorrow. Students of Lower One, Upper One and Grades Two and Three will have no school for the rest of this week.

The PTA meeting will take place at the Chapel of St Joseph’s Convent at 8 am on Friday. For further information please contact the school’s administration at 629-2330, 640-3230, 735-6229 and 726-5425.