A fire that tore through a home in a heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighbourhood, leaving seven children dead and two other people in critical condition, may have been caused by a malfunctioning hotplate left on because of prohibitions against cooking on the Sabbath, the city's fire commissioner said Saturday.
Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the deceased range in age from 5 to 15 years old. He said a woman and teenager survived after jumping from the second floor.
The woman is believed to be the mother of all eight children, Nigro said.
"This is the largest tragedy by fire that this city has had in seven years," Nigro said. "It's a tragedy for this family, it's a tragedy for this community, it's a tragedy for the city."
He said fire investigators found a smoke detector in the basement of the home, but so far none have been found elsewhere in the house. "There was no evidence of smoke detectors on either the first or the second floor that may have alerted this family to the fire," he said.
Firefighters received a call at 12:23 a.m. about the blaze at the single-family home in Midwood, a leafy section of Brooklyn known for its low crime and large Orthodox Jewish population. Fire department spokesman Jim Long said more than 100 firefighters responded and brought the blaze under control at around 1:30 a.m.
Seven children died as flames ripped through a house in New York's Brooklyn borough early Saturday. More than 100 firefighters turned out to battle the blaze in the Midwood neighbourhood just before 12:30 a.m. local time. (Stephanie Keith/Reuters)
Neighbour Nate Weber told the paper that he saw children being wheeled away on stretchers.
"I just turned away. I didn't even want to look," he said.
Weber told the New York Daily News he heard the children's mother yelling for someone to rescue her children after she jumped from a window.
"I heard a woman yelling: `My kids are in there. Get them out! Get them out!"' he told the Post.
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