Early-Morning Blaze in Brooklyn Kills Two Girls, Ages 2 and 4
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Two children were killed early yesterday morning in a Brooklyn blaze that was caused by a plug-in space heater.
While 13 people had escaped the blaze by the time firefighters arrived at the three-story home on 73rd Street in the Bayridge section of Brooklyn, at 5:17 a.m., two young girls were still trapped on the second floor, the assistant chief of the fire departments press office, Bob Byrnes, said.
Neighbors said firefighters scaled a ladder to the second floor of the home and climbed in through a window amid the flames, looking for Aya Kahawatini, 4, and Fatim Lazhir, 2.
When firefighters found the girls, they were already dead, Mr. Byrnes said.
In an attempt to save the girls, their aunt tried to re-enter the flame-engulfed home, sustaining burns on her face and hands, Mr. Byrnes said. She was then rushed to Lutheran Hospital.
The children’s mother was at work when the fire started, Mr. Byrnes said.
A space heater sitting next to the bed where one of the girls who died was sleeping ignited the fire, Mr. Byrnes said. He said a faulty power cord on the heater, which was about two years old, was the likely cause.
After escaping the fire, many of the survivors found shelter in the home of a neighbor, 52-year-old Genovera Hernandez.
“They came in and I gave them blankets,” Mrs. Hernandez said. “The children weren’t wearing shoes.”
According to a neighbor who has lived across the street from where the fire blazed for 38 years, Eleanor Shay, the two children and their mother moved into the building about two weeks ago.
The fire blazed for about four hours, neighbors said. At one point, the flames spread to a neighboring home, Mr. Byrnes said.
Firefighters fought the flames with hoses stationed in front of the home and from trucks on the other side of an adjacent building on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, neighbors said.
“All the water turned the street to ice,” Mrs. Shay said.
Twenty-one firefighters sustained minor injuries, and three of the survivors were treated for smoke inhalation at Staten Island University Hospital, Mr. Byrnes said.
