Terrible fire in Brooklyn

Sanguine

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 1:47 pm

\7 Jewish Children Burn to Death in Brooklyn

Bedford betwn L&M)

Children aged 5 to 15 in one family die after a Sabbath hot plate apparently malfunctioned.

Seven Jewish children from the same family died Saturday when their New York home was engulfed in flames after a portable cooker malfunctioned, authorities said.

The so-called hot plate, which is a small electrical heating element, likely was left on to keep food warm in observance of the Sabbath (Shabbat), New York fire commissioner Daniel Nigro told a news conference, reports AFP.
"This is the largest tragedy by fire that this city has had in seven years," Nigro said in comments reported by The New York Times. "It's a tragedy for this family, it's a tragedy for this community, it's a tragedy for the city."

Firefighters were called to the blaze in the home in the borough of Brooklyn shortly after midnight. The victims were aged between 5 and 15.

A 45-year-old woman thought to be their mother and another girl, 14, escaped by jumping out of windows and were being treated in area hospitals in critical condition.

"I heard a woman yelling, 'My kids are in there. Get them out, get them out!'" a neighbor, Nate Weber, told the New York Post.

Weber saw children being taken from the home on stretchers and "I knew it was bad news...I just turned away. I didn't even want to look," he said.

The mother and the eight children were in at least five upstairs bedrooms when the fire broke out in the kitchen downstairs.

"To find a house full of children that can't be revived, I'm sure this will take its toll on our members for quite some time," Nigro said, according to CNN.

The victims were three girls aged eight, 12 and 15; and four boys aged five, six, seven and 11. Authorities were having difficulties reaching the father, who was away at a conference.

The victims' names were not immediately released.

A man who lives next door to the burned home told the Times the family was large and loving and that some of the kids had helped neighbors hovel snow on Friday.

"They're very good people, the kids were always helping people," he told the newspaper.

Nigro said there was no sign of working smoke detectors on the first or second floors.

Because Jewish law proscribes the lighting of flames on the Sabbath, many families leave electrical burners running to keep food warm over the day of rest instead of using stoves.

The New York Fire Department responded to some 2,504 "serious incidents" in 2014, according to its annual report.

Sanguine

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 1:54 pm

Here's Ynet's link. They posted the mother's name too

http://www.ynetnews.com/articl......html

DrMom

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 1:59 pm

I just read about this.
BDE.
Horrible. No words.

deena19k

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 2:12 pm

Oh my gosh. Beyond horrible.

grace413

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 2:15 pm

So sad. BDE.

etky

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 2:17 pm

I always turn on the computer on motzei Shabbat with some degree of trepidation, afraid to discover that perhaps something terrible happened over Shabbat.
This week the fear was justified.
No words for the horror, just prayers for the physical and emotional recovery of the mother and the one surviving daughter who are in critical condition.
Hashem Yishmor.

Heyaaa

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 3:17 pm

We know and the father doesn't know. I'm so sad I can't think

finallyamommy

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 3:45 pm

omg :-( tragic

does anyone know the mother and surviving daughter's names for davening?

Tamiri

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 3:55 pm

Ynet just posted the mother's name as Gail. Sasson family.

Jewishmom8

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 5:13 pm

so so sad. Sad

myself

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 5:16 pm

etky wrote:

This.

BDE.

5mom

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 5:18 pm

Terrible news, so sad.

Ruchel

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 5:24 pm

I read " Please pray for Avigayil bat Tzipora and Tzipora bat Avigayil."

I have also been asked to daven for Shmuel ben Zakia and Myriam Diamante bat ??.

Crying

m in Israel

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 5:59 pm

BDE This is such a terrible event.

kerida

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 6:25 pm

So upsetting, heartbreaking. Poor poor innocents.

Please please check you have fire alarms on every floor of your home.

windowsill

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 7:20 pm

A fire is my worst nightmare...
BDE
so so heartbreaking...

Raisin

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 7:54 pm

so awful. I'm not leaving my hotplate on again over shabbos, unless its on a timeswitch to go off after the friday night meal. a previous hotplate burnt a hole in our counter one yom tov.

are crockpots any safer?

Also going to check all our smoke alarms are working.

CPenzias

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 8:17 pm

So awful

we usually leave our hotplate on a timer so it goes off after an hour or 2 once the meal is over.
So terrible. No words. These hotplates are dangerous. My sister in law said hers exploded.

watergirl

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 8:24 pm

Heyaaa wrote:

We know and the father doesn't know. I'm so sad I can't think

Aside from the terrible tragedy, I am shocked and appalled at the lack of Sensitivity that these new sources posted the news without first making sure that the father had a chance to hear. The fire took place shabbos night, it was reported before shabbos was even over. A whole half of a world can read about it before he even heard. Not ok.

Barbara

Sat, Mar 21 2015, 8:25 pm

BDE. This is simply an unspeakable tragedy.

As we mourn and try to learn from this, I want to quote a comment I saw on Facebook:

Quote:

I am a firefighter and taught fire safety. I promise all of you when that heat hits your body and smoke chokes your lungs the basic nature of survival will kick in. No matter how much you love your children. Instead of judging this lost I beg all of you to purchase smoke detectors for every room in your house, change the batteries 3x a year, and teach all how to get out of the house during a fire. Children have a tendency to hide during a fire. That's the wrong thing to do. Get out and stay out