Heater examined in fire; victim critical

AARON LEO and JOHN BURGESON Staff writers
Article Last Updated: 01/19/2008 01:01:15 AM EST

BRIDGEPORT — Amavi Sodjen was apparently lighting a kerosene heater in his second-floor apartment at 230-232 Salem St. when it burst into flames early Friday, according to city Fire Marshal Bruce Collins.

Flames from the kerosene heater spread quickly.

Sodjen, who was set on fire by the ignition about midnight Friday, ran to get his children out of the house. He grabbed his son, 8-year-old Agbessi, who also was burned, and fled with his two other youngsters.

Sodjen, 46, was in critical condition at Bridgeport Hospital's burn unit Friday. His son was treated for less serious burns at St. Vincent's Medical Center and released.

The elder Sodjen suffered burns on the front of his body from his neck down, perhaps because he was leaning over the heater when it caught fire, Collins said.

As fire engulfed the second floor of the three-family home and spread to the third floor, the third-floor tenant was forced to jump from a window to escape the blaze. He was briefly hospitalized and released, Collins said.

The blaze remains under investigation, but Collins said one point of scrutiny is that kerosene heaters are illegal in three-family buildings or larger here.

Collins said he hadn't yet spoken with Amavi Sodjen, who is the owner of the property, according to city records posted on its Web site. He said he would try to talk to Sodjen and Senior Assistant State's Attorney Howard Stein on Tuesday after Monday's observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The home received about $250,000 in damages, Collins estimated.

"The third floor is gone. The roof's gone," he said.

The second floor has extensive damage and there was water damage to the first floor and basement, the fire marshal said.

Meanwhile, some of the home's residents and neighbors later Friday said it was fortunate there were not more casualties.

Bertin Longwa, who lived on the first floor, said Sodjen, his landlord, was "very badly burned."

"I came home late that night, and took a sleeping tablet, so I was in a deep, deep sleep," Longwa said. "I woke up when I heard shouting — I went upstairs and found my landlord in flames. I wanted to cover him with a blanket to try to put out the flames, but he ran away from me."

Sodjen, who Longwa said is from Togo, is married and the father of three children.

Longwa — joined by his wife and three children, who are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo — fled to safety without injuries.

"All we have are the clothes on our backs," Longwa said, who added that all of the homeless were put up in the Bridgeport Holiday Inn by the local chapter of the American Red Cross for the time being.

Another resident of the house, Abvoulatif Moahamadou, who Longwa described as a "strapping young man" in his mid-20s, was only slightly injured when he leapt from his third-story apartment.

"It was horrible," said a neighbor, Jeannette Herron, who said she was alerted to the blaze by a commotion in the street.

"At first we didn't know whether it was our house on fire or the neighbor's" she said. "So we packed up our cats and went outside. The flames were shooting 20 to 30 feet into the air."

The father and son who suffered injuries in the fire are part of "a really nice family," she said.

Herron said that most of the windows in her apartment building that faced the burning house cracked from the intense heat, although the building at 2649 Main St. did not catch fire. "But the smell is terrible," she said.

Herron added that the house is old, like many on the street. The house was built in 1918, and Sodjen bought it last June for $355,000, according to city land records online.