Rishi Ram Sawak, 48, had been drinking when he doused himself with a gallon of gasoline after his wife refused to let him into the family's Richmond Hill home, the wife said.
"I thought he was going to sleep," said Sawak's wife, Sharion. "The next thing I heard was him screaming, 'Mama! Mama!' I can't believe he would do something like this."
"Mama" was the dad's nickname for his beloved 21/2-year-old daughter, Salima, relatives said.
They said they feared he may have wanted to take the girl with him by calling out to the child.
Little Salima and her 51/2-year-old brother, Ray, watched in horror from a window as their father burned on the front lawn.
"Daddy just laid down like a Barbie doll," Salima said afterward, according to a relative.
Sharion said her relationship with her husband was often abusive
