The sole survivor of a Vancouver house fire that killed five people broke down during his testimony in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday as he described trying to escape his burning home.
Bolingo Etibako was sobbing loudly on the stand as he told the court he was on fire as he jumped through a second-story window. He and his girlfriend, Ashley Singh, were sleeping in the basement when the fire broke out in his home the night of May 15, 2006.
On the stand, Etibako described his panic at being trapped in the burning home.
"I was desperately trying to get out," he told the court. "Ashley fell, I couldn't help her, my hands were burned,"
Etibako eventually ran upstairs, jumping through the window and running onto the street.
"I felt like I had to get help," he said. "Everyone was standing there doing nothing."
He told a police officer his girlfriend was inside, along with four members of his family. He thought his older brother T.J. might be in the house, but he was not.
His mother Adela Etibako, 39, and three younger siblings Edita, 12, Benedicta, nine, and Stephane, eight, died in the fire.
Nathan Fry is charged with five counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder in connection to the fire.
Bolingo Etibako spent more than two months in the burn unit of Vancouver General Hospital from his injuries and is still healing.
Etibako told the jury he met Nathan Fry about a year before the fire. He accuses Fry of wanting to hurt him. It is the crown's theory that Fry set the fire in retaliation for Bolingo implicating him in two stabbings.
Those charges were later dropped.
The court is expected to hear from several police officers and fire investigators before the Crown's case wraps up later this month.
With a report from CTV British Columbia.
