Posted on 03/09/2007 11:16:34 AM PST by AuntB
New York - Screams poured from the burning building along with smoke and flames: "Help me! Help me! Please! Please!"
Bystanders looked up to see a woman toss two children out the window one at a time to those below.
The scene unfolded early Thursday during New York's deadliest fire in nearly two decades - a blaze that killed eight children and one adult, part of an extended family led by African immigrants who shared a row house near Yankee Stadium.
The children tossed from the three-story building survived, authorities said. The woman who threw them jumped and survived. The fire was sparked by an overheated space heater near a mattress in a basement bedroom, then raced up a stairway pushed by air from broken back windows, said Fire Chief Salvatore Cassano.
Most of the 22 residents - 17 of them children - were stranded on the upper floors as the blaze raged for two hours.Neighbor Edward Soto ran toward the fire, then stared in disbelief as an infant was tossed from the building.
"All I see is just a big cloud of white dust, and out of nowhere comes the first baby," said Soto, who caught the child while with another neighbor.
Moments later, he caught a second child. Firefighters worked for two hours in freezing predawn temperatures to bring the flames under control. The home had two smoke alarms, but neither had batteries. Police said there was no evidence of a crime.
The dead were found throughout the house, mostly on the upper floors, with babies still in their cribs. The victims included five children from one family, along with a wife and three other children from a second family.
Word of the fire spread grief across two continents, from the Bronx to villages in Mali, a West African country about twice the size of Texas and one of the poorest nations in the world.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," said Mamadou Soumare, a livery cabdriver whose wife, son and 7-month-old twins died in the blaze. "I love her. I love my wife."
Dreadful. May the victims rest in peace.
Thank you for setting the record straight
May their souls rest in peace.
This is so sad and tragic.
I wonder, do most who die in house fires, die from the actual fire or smoke inhalation?
Probably the latter. And it really appalls me that people think they can afford to squirt out half a dozen babies, when they can't afford a couple of dollars a year to keep good batteries in their smoke detectors.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.