Posted: November 28, 2005

From David Monti

© 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

Long-time Tri-State area distance runner Paul Mwangi was forced to crawl to safety when the apartment building in which he lives was set ablaze.

Mwangi, a 39 year-old Kenyan who lives in New Paltz, N.Y., about 90 miles north of New York City, answered the door to his apartment just before heading out for training to find out that the building was on fire.

"I opened the door and [the hall] was completely smoke-filled,'' Mwangi told the POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL newspaper last Tuesday.

The fire, which occurred last Tuesday, was apparently set in connection with a homocide. A dead woman, who was not identified, was found inside one of the apartments, and the JOURNAL reported last Wednesday that police were looking at the case as a murder/arson.

The building was condemmed by the authorities leaving six people homeless, including Mwangi.

Mwangi ran the Manchester Road Race two days later and finished 25th. "I got out with only my pants and my shirt on," he told reporter Lori Riley of the HARTFORD COURANT just before running at Manchester. "I don't know if everything is gone."