Survivor Of Deadly East Elmhurst Fire Celebrates 1st Birthday

GALVESTON, TEX. — Liam Rodriguez celebrated his first birthday on Aug. 15 in a Texas hospital room filled with shark-themed party decorations.

Days later, he had his eighth surgery since the East Elmhurst arson that claimed three of his relatives' lives.

Surgeons at Shriners Hospital in Galveston amputated the baby boy's left pointer finger, the toes on his right foot and his entire left foot.

It was just another week in the emotional whirlwind that has consumed the Moreno-Rodriguez family since an unhinged houseguest used gasoline to torch their Queens home, where four relatives visiting from the Dominican Republic were staying at the time.

Liam's mother, Elizabeth, his grandfather Claudio and his six-year-old sister Ema all died in the fire on July 10.

Rafelina and Raul Moreno, the couple who owns the East Elmhurst home, have since adopted Liam. Another relative, Denise Moreno, became his godmother in a bedside ceremony at Weill Cornell Hospital's burn center.

Moreno, the godmother, started a GoFundMe to pay for Liam's medical costs and transportation. The campaign has raised nearly $7,000.

"We are trying to focus on the fact that he is still very young and will learn how to function with what he has," she wrote in a GoFundMe update.

"We have had some rough moments, but [thankfully] he is a true fighter," she added.