[ad_1]
A 22-year-old man and three children have died in a terrifying inferno after a fire broke out on Quimby Avenue in the Bronx on Sunday.
Two little boys, aged 10 and 12, perished in the fire, as did with their 22-year-old brother who police pulled out and rushed him to hospital along with 10-month-old daughter, who died in hospital.
‘You could see their little hands banging on the windows,’ tearful resident Merlyn Persaue, 60, told the New York Post, adding: ‘I see the hands in the windows, and then the flames wash up on the windows, and then there was no more sound.’
One neighbor living next door rescued a mother and her child before the flames could spread.
‘[The] woman and little boy were banging on my window. They were screaming, they were crying, and the black smoke was coming out behind them,’ neighbor Imlaque Chowdhury said.
‘I opened the window, and I grabbed them both and pull them inside. What else could I do? One of those kids that plays with my niece. I looked outside, and I saw the man running around. I thought that everyone had gotten out. I could have gone down, I could have helped. I could have done more. But I didn’t know. I thought everyone had gotten out.’
Cries in Arabic which translate to ‘Help me, God! Help me, God’ were heard coming from the burning house, one neighbor said, before officers rushed to the scene.
A devastating inferno claimed the lives of four people, including three children, at a home in the Bronx on Sunday morning
Three men ran up the stairs to try and kick down the door, attempting to rescue the family
Three men ran up the stairs to try and kick down the door, attempting to rescue the family right until the end.
Fire officials saw flames spilling out of the windows of the house and heard gut-wrenching screams when they arrived on 2165 Quimby Ave at 6am.
‘When I come out, I see fire, I see this man just panicking, just screaming for his family. He said “my kids, my kids are all up there help!”‘ neighbor Carla Cornielle told NBC 4 New York.
Emergency responders managed to pull a 21-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man out of the flaming building. They are in critical condition and are being in treated in NYC Health + Hospitals Jacobi.
The family members were from the Yemeni community. Faith leaders were seen leaving candles in commemoration of those who died in Sunday’s fire.
City Hall is promising to help the family with funeral arrangements.
‘We did have slight extension to the building next to the fire building. We have several firefighter injuries, minor in nature,’ said Assistant Chief Kevin Brennan said.
A team of more than 100 firefighters and emergency services managed to get the fire under control at just before 8am, extinguishing it shortly after.
Mayor Eric Adams visited the remains of the home and promised to help the community recover. The mayor himself has lived through two house fires.
‘We are going to be here for the family to make sure we can assist with all the burials and all the support they need at this time,’ Adams said.
File photo: Mayor Eric Adams visited the remains of the home and promised to help the community recover. He is pictured making an announcement in New York last week
A neighbor’s home was also damaged in the fire, and a man was seen collecting his possessions before going to stay with a relative.
‘We have fires in this borough almost every single week, and certainly any fire is one too many,’ Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson said. One fire in January in a Bronx apartment building killed 17 people.
‘We have to learn from so many other painful lessons from the past, of making sure we have smoke detectors that are working. October is Fire Safety Awareness Month, but it needs to be every single month.’
The cause of the fire is still being investigated. Inspector Keiyon S. Ramsey, the commanding officer of the 43rd Precinct, said in an interview with the New York Times that it is not expected to be criminal.
[ad_2]
Source link
