Thread: Two years later, immigrant wife’s death in Bensonhurst fire haunts husband

nydailynews.com
By Carla Astudillo / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, February 2, 2012, 4:00 AM


The Chans attend service at the Jovenes Cristianos Evangelical Church. From left to right: Josias, Maria Maura and Miguel Chan.

It’s been two years since Miguel Chan’s wife perished in a Bensonhurst apartment building fire, one of five immigrants killed in the blaze.

Chan, left on his own to care for his two children, Josias, 4, and Maria Maura, 2, are still with him largely due to their mother's quick thinking in her final minutes alive.

"If you can survive, please take care of the children," Luisa said before letting go of Chan’s hand and collapsing.

Luisa Ordoñez Chan, 34, was one of five Guatemalan immigrants killed in the fire at 2033 86th St. on Jan. 30, 2010.

After investigators found evidence of an accelerant, police arrested Daniel Ignacio and charged him with five counts of murder and one count of arson.

Ignacio, now 29, lived on the second floor of the building, along with eight fellow Guatemalan day laborers.

The Chans lived on the third floor in a subdivided apartment with six other people.

"We knew of each other," said Chan, 40, referring to Ignacio. "We would greet each other. But that was, of course, before what happened."

The couple was asleep with their children beside them when neighbors yelling outside roused Luisa, who woke to see smoke billowing into the apartment.

"She told me, 'Papi, Papi, you have to wake up. We have to go now!'" Chan recalled.

There were no fire escapes. The only way out was through the jammed front window. Miguel Chan shattered the glass with a chair.

As the heat and the smoke intensified, Luisa wrapped Maria in a sheet and set her down in a baby car seat. Miguel threw the seat and infant out the window hoping a neighbor would catch her.

He forgot to check if the baby was strapped in. She slipped out of the seat mid-air. Maria smashed the right side of her head on the ground, but survived.

Miguel scanned for another neighbor to catch his son, and heard a man yelling from the second-floor window to drop Josias down to him.

Daniel Ignacio caught the boy.

When the firefighters' ladder finally reached their window, Miguel Chan could not see his wife in the smoke-filled, scorching apartment. He could only feel her hand in his.

Miguel climbed down the ladder. "I thought the firefighters were going to go up and rescue her. I thought she was going to be okay," Miguel said. "But they never went up."

Days later, he said, a firefighter gave him a note lamenting that it was too dangerous to go into the apartment.

Maria, who spent 20 days in the hospital recovering from the head injury, is beginning to walk. She still doesn't speak but receives regular speech therapy. Meanwhile, Josias is excelling in his pre-kindergarten class at P.S. 274.

With no relatives to help him, Chan quit his job to take care of his children. The family now lives in Bushwick and receives monthly payments from the Jovenes Cristianos Evangelical Church set to run out in six months.

Even though he's thankful his children are doing well, Chan said he cannot forgive the man who saved his son and is accused of killing his wife. "He still left a great damage to this family," Chan said. "I just can't think about right now."

Read more: Two years later, immigrant wife

Related:

http://www.alipac.us/f12/illegal-res...ve-nyc-177587/

http://www.alipac.us/f12/nyc-fire-im...st-5-a-177306/