RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter 

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt  

Pop­u­lar mas­quer­ad­er Ken­neth Lewis who was known decades ago as King Go­ril­la or Hawk­eye, died on Sat­ur­day, trapped in a fire that en­gulfed his home. 

Lewis, 75, spent his twi­light years in a ply­board house at Lily Dri­ve, Pleas­antville, de­void of elec­tric­i­ty. Po­lice be­lieve a can­dle ig­nit­ed his mat­tress as he slept around 5:40 am. His neigh­bour and close friend Clay­ton Dick, 73, de­scribed Lewis as a man who nev­er grew up. Dick said Lewis was cre­ative and en­ter­pris­ing and had ven­tured to build a rock­et, decades ago. "That was in the 80s, and the whole vil­lage came out to see the rock­et, which rose a few feet in the air and dropped down," he laughed. 

He said Lewis would strip cro­cus bags and make go­ril­la cos­tumes for Car­ni­val. "It was how he be­came known as King Go­ril­la," Dick added. Lat­er on, his cos­tumes be­came even more elab­o­rate and he craft­ed a Drag­on de­sign whose tongue dragged on the ground.

Dick said Lewis's cre­ativ­i­ty kept him jol­ly de­spite his liv­ing con­di­tions. "He was con­tent­ed to live with­out elec­tric­i­ty. He had no chil­dren but he was once a ladies man, a re­al smart dress­er," Dick added. Re­call­ing the fire, Dick said he was asleep and was awak­ened by the roar of the fire as it swept through Lewis's mod­est home. "A la­dy who was pass­ing said she heard some­one scream­ing, and she saw smoke, but that house went up in 15 min­utes," he said. He not­ed that Lewis's charred body was found face-up by the door.

In re­cent times, Lewis had been hos­pi­tal­ized 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," Dick 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 King Go­ril­la, the man who made the neat­est Go­ril­la cos­tumes,"

Dick said. Mean­while, San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris said he knew Lewis and loved his hand­i­work. He said he did not know where Lewis lived but not­ed that Lewis made a valu­able con­tri­bu­tion to cul­ture. Par­ris ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to Lewis' rel­a­tives and friends.