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Man Burned To Death In Garage Explosion Buried

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By VALERIE KALFRIN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 9, 2008

TAMPA - With prayers in Arabic, family and friends buried a 22-year-old mechanic Friday who died in a commercial-garage fire this week.

Farid I.A. Karakra was inside Jacob's Lube at 901 W. Busch Blvd. at 12:02 a.m. Wednesday when a series of explosions ignited the business.

Police, firefighters and nearby workers tried to free him from the burning building but were unsuccessful.

"It's horrible," cousin Farid Masud, 35, of Tampa said shortly before a prayer service at the Islamic Center of Tampa Bay, which handled the funeral.

"He was uplifting. Energetic," Masud said. "He's got his whole life ahead of him."

Tampa Fire Rescue Capt. Bill Wade said investigators are awaiting lab tests to help determine the fire's cause.

Friday, Wade said his agency's records showed a few minor fuel and oil spills at the business over the past few years but nothing out of the ordinary.

Tampa police, the state fire marshal and the Tampa office of the FBI are assisting with the investigation.

So far, the FBI said it has found nothing unusual in the debris.

Karakra came to Tampa from Jerusalem about four years ago.

He was engaged to the sister of the business's owner, Yazid Yousef, said Yousef's brother, Yousef Yousef.
Yazid Yousef is distraught over the loss of his business and his future brother-in-law, the brother said: "He can't talk."

The two relatives did not know why Karakra had been at the shop so late but said he often worked in his spare time. He also enjoyed relaxing at Al-Aqsa, a Middle Eastern grocery and coffee shop on North 56th Street, they said.

He was to be buried at Sunset Memory Gardens in Thonotosassa.

"We have a saying: To God we belong. To God we return," Masud said.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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