Seven Jewish children die in Brooklyn fire
Fire, which started from a hot plate malfunctioning, claimed the lives of 4 boys and 3 girls aged 5-15; mother, teenage daughter in critical condition after jumping out of 2nd story window to escape flames.
Seven siblings aged 5 to 15 years old from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family were killed in a fire that broke out in their Brooklyn home early Saturday. Their mother and 14-year-old sister were left in critical condition.
Neighbors, who called 911 at 12:23 am, said they heard a child cry for the mother, while 45-year-old Gayle Sassoon, was seen calling out "My kids are in there! Get them out! Get them out!"
More than 100 firefighters responded and brought the fire under control, New York Fire Department spokesman Jim Long said. After forcing their way in, the firefighters found the young victims motionless in their bedrooms.
The cause of the fire is believed to be a hot plate which malfunctioned and ignited. Haredi Jews use hot plates, which they turn on before sundown Friday, to keep food warm during the Shabbat as they do not use electricity during the holy day of rest.
The fire, which started in the kitchen shortly after midnight, quickly spread to the second floor where the young children - four boys and three girls - were sleeping in five bedrooms at the rear of the house, local authorities said.
The children were identified as Yakob, 5; Sarah, 6; Moshe, 8; Yeshua, 10; Rivkah, 11; David, 12; and Eliane, 15.
Sassoon and her elder daughter were able to escape the flames by jumping out of the second-floor window. Sassoon was taken to the Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx, while her daughter was taken to the Staten Island University Hospital North, both in critical condition, suffering from burns and smoke inhalation.
According to the New York Post, two of the boys, ages 5 and 6, were pronounced dead at Beth Israel Hospital. An 8-year-old girl was pronounced dead at the scene, while her 15-year-old sister was pronounced dead at Maimonides Hospital. A 12-year-old girl and her 7- and 11-year-old brothers were pronounced dead at New York Community Hospital in Brooklyn.
According to neighbors, the "very religious" and "ultra-Orthodox" family recently moved back to the United States from Israel, where they had been living since 1996. The mother, Gayle, grew up in the Bedford Avenue home, where the fire broke out.
A friend of Sassoon told the Post that the family was very involved in the community. "They used to wash cars before Passover," the friend said.
The father, the Post reported, was in a conference and authorities were "having trouble locating him."
“It’s a tragedy for this family. It’s a tragedy for this community. It’s a tragedy for our city,” Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.
The Post reported that there were no smoke detectors in the two floors of the brick home in Midwood which could have alerted the family to the fire. There was only one smoke detector in the basement of the house.
Nigro called the fire “the largest tragedy by fire that this city has had in seven years.”
His firefighters, he said, had a hard time locating the children. “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,” he said.
The last residential blaze with a similar death toll happened in 2007, when eight children and an adult were killed in a fire in a 100-year-old building in the borough of the Bronx where several African immigrant families lived. Fire officials said an overheated space heater cord sparked that blaze.
