The four victims of Sunday’s deadly Bronx fire were laid to rest Tuesday at a funeral in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
More than 106 firefighters and EMS personnel from 25 units responded to the inferno, which broke out near Quimby Avenue and Castle Hill Ave. in Unionport at around 6 a.m. Oct. 30, and quickly grew into a two-alarm event.
Six people, in all, were pulled from the residence, according to the Fire Department.
Two of the victims — two boys, 12-year-old Mohamed Waleed Ahmed and Kalheed Ben Saleh, 10 — were pronounced dead at the scene. Police said another pair of victims died at Jacobi Hospital: 22-year-old Ahmed Saleh and his 10-month-old daughter, Barah. The two young boys were Ahmed’s brothers.
Family, friends and neighbors mourned the victims at a funeral at Beit El-Maqdis Islamic Center,
Two other adult victims — a 21-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man – were hospitalized at Jacobi Hospital in critical condition, law enforcement sources said. There have been no public updates on their condition.
Firefighters eventually brought the fire under control nearly two hours later, at about 7:54 a.m. Sunday. The blaze remains under investigation, but preliminary findings reportedly point to an electrical malfunction.
“They were amazing kids, so filled with life and joy,” a family member on the scene Sunday told amNew York Metro. “This is devastating for the family.”
An advisor with a Yemeni American Merchants Association told reporters outside of the funeral home Tuesday that his organization is doing what it can to support the family during this difficult time.
“This is very devastating. What can you tell a brother and a sister who go to sleep all the time and woke up without?” he said. “We didn’t know how to deal with this. The only days we could compare [this situation] to is the war days of Yemen.”
Right now, he said, the group — a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that seeks to support Yemeni-American merchants and their families — is focusing on providing the family, and neighbors, with access to mental health services.
“That is the only way that we can help right now,” he said. “This has been catastrophic for the family and the community.”
Additional reporting by Lloyd Mitchell
