Raj Estrada, 32, was killed on Friday while working as a janitor at a Khao San Road shelter as well as the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority headquarters in Kampong Thom or NDRRMA.
“I am so sad to see my friend and colleague get killed here in the middle of the night,” Estrada was quoted as saying by a report by Dutchess County Central News. “He was such a great and kind person, he would never cheat anyone without asking them first. That doesn’t exist anymore.”
Estrada, who was working two and a half days without pay, had been sleeping outside the shelter in a makeshift camp on a patch of grass while taking care of the elderly until a call was made to the city police just before 1:00am.
Police spokesman Senior Supt. Nguyen Van Luyen confirmed the accident and said investigators have begun their work to determine exactly how the janitor fell to his death at about midnight on Thursday.
He said Estrada’s body was found on the roof of a building close to LSRRA’s headquarters.
“One firefighter who went to the scene immediately identified Estrada as one of his fellow rescuers at the scene who helped put out the fire in the shelter,” he said. “After talking with his family they said he was a nice guy so there is no doubt the tragedy was his own fault.”
He said Estrada had been working at the shelter for two and a half weeks. Estrada’s cousin, a Nakhon Ratchasima police officer who did not give her surname, described him as “a very good guy” who loved his job.
He said Estrada went to Khao San Road to help the elderly after a fire occurred there. He said a fire service worker who was on the rooftop when the accident occurred called the police at 1:01am because the roof was almost empty and the fire was beginning to spread.
“When one of the firefighters went to get the emergency doors pulled by the elderly they asked to use them to enter the building. Estrada asked if he could put his safety jacket on so we gave him one. When the door was opened he slipped down the ladder and fell down,” she said.