Seven Children Killed in Brooklyn, NY Fire

A police officer at the scene of the fire.Getty Images

[From article]
A mother and her eight children — four boys and three girls ranging in age from 5 to 15 years-old — were in their Midwood home when the fire began in the kitchen just after midnight. Flames and deadly smoke quickly spread to second floor where the youngest kids were sleeping in five bedrooms, authorities said.
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro called it “the largest tragedy by fire that this city has had in seven years.”
The hot plate might have been turned on before sundown Friday and left on to keep food warm, authorities said. Observant Jews avoid turning on ovens or electrical appliances once Sabbath begins.

http://nypost.com/2015/03/21/3-kids-killed-in-tragic-brooklyn-blaze/

Seven children dead after hot plate ignites NYC blaze
By Aaron Feis, Natalie Musumeci and Kathianne Boniello
New York Post
March 21, 2015 | 2:44am

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[From article]
The dead children — Yaakob, 5, Sara, 6, Moshe, 8, Yehoshua, 10, Rivkah, 11, David, 12, and Eliane, 16 — were killed in a Saturday morning blaze at the family’s Midwood home. The fire is believed to have been caused by a malfunctioning hot plate, which the family kept on during the Sabbath to adhere to religious rules.
Their mother, Gayle Sassoon, 45, and sister Siporah, 15, escaped but remain hospitalized in critical condition.
The family had lived in Israel for more than a decade before recently moving back to New York City, where Gayle Sassoon was raised.
The children’s bodies were flown to Israel for burial after their funeral.
Alon Edri, who identified himself as a rabbi and relative of the family, told AP, “We believe that being buried in Israel is important because all of your sins are then absolved.”


Gayle Sassoon (left) with her husband and family.

http://nypost.com/2015/03/23/7-orthodox-jewish-siblings-who-died-in-fire-arrive-in-israel/

7 siblings killed in Brooklyn fire laid to rest in Israel
By Reuven Fenton
New York Post
March 23, 2015 | 9:35am

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People fill the streets near a Brooklyn chapel for a eulogy in remembrance of the seven siblings who perished in a fire, on March 22.
Photo: Edmund J. Coppa

[From article]
The sole surviving sibling of the seven children killed in a horrific Brooklyn blaze has been desperately asking if her brothers and sisters are OK, their father said Monday.
“She doesn’t know [they’re all dead]. She tried to ask me. She wanted to know more about [them], but then she came in and out of consciousness,” said shattered dad Gabriel Sassoon as he sat shiva in Jerusalem after burying the children.
“I told her everything was taken care of, that her mother was in a separate hospital and was being taken care of,” he said of surviving daughter Tziporah, 15.
http://nypost.com/2015/03/23/teen-in-deadly-brooklyn-blaze-doesnt-know-siblings-are-dead/

Girl hurt in fatal Brooklyn blaze doesn’t know siblings are dead
By Reuven Fenton
New York Post
March 23, 2015 | 2:58pm