RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Ken­neth Lewis, known in his prime as “King Go­ril­la” and “Hawk­eye,” died in a fire that de­stroyed his home in Pleas­antville yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Lewis, 75, lived alone in a mod­est ply­board house on Lily Dri­ve, Pleas­antville. The house had no elec­tric­i­ty and po­lice be­lieve the fire start­ed around 5.0 am when a can­dle ac­ci­den­tal­ly ig­nit­ed his mat­tress while he slept.

A close friend and neigh­bour, Clay­ton Dick, 73, de­scribed Lewis as a man with an ex­tra­or­di­nary imag­i­na­tion who nev­er let his cir­cum­stances damp­en his spir­it.

“He was a man who nev­er grew up. He could tell you wild sto­ries,” Dick said.

He said Lewis gained fame in his com­mu­ni­ty for his elab­o­rate Car­ni­val cos­tumes, earn­ing the name “King Go­ril­la” af­ter craft­ing strik­ing go­ril­la de­signs from stripped cro­cus bags.

“He would strip the cro­cus bag and make the cos­tume, very neat and very well done. Lat­er on, he made a drag­on whose tongue would drag be­hind him,” Dick re­called.

“He once tried to build a rock­et,” Dick re­called. “The whole vil­lage came out to see it. It lift­ed a few feet and dropped, but it showed how in­ven­tive he was.”

Re­call­ing Sat­ur­day’s fire, Dick said he awoke to the “roar” of the flames but by then the en­tire house was en­gulfed.

“A la­dy who was pass­ing ad­mit­ted she heard some­one scream­ing and saw smoke, but that house went up in 15 min­utes. No­body could save him,” Dick said.

Lewis’s charred body was found face-up near the door.

Dick said Lewis had been hos­pi­tal­ized re­cent­ly and had dif­fi­cul­ty walk­ing. 

“He nev­er want­ed to die in the hos­pi­tal. He was so sick and he did not want to go. Even­tu­al­ly, a few peo­ple came and lift­ed him bod­i­ly and took him. He spent a few days and then he got dis­charged,” he re­called.

He said ban­dits stole Lewis’s gas tank so he start­ed to cook out­doors. 

“He lived a good life. He was stub­born and would not take ad­vice but I am sure every­one would re­mem­ber him. He didn’t have much, but he was con­tent. Peo­ple will re­mem­ber him for his cos­tumes and the joy he brought to oth­ers,” he said.

San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris was un­aware of Lewis’s liv­ing con­di­tions but recog­nised his cul­tur­al con­tri­bu­tions with Car­ni­val cre­ations and of­fered con­do­lences to his rel­a­tives.