STORM2K

9 Dead in NYC House Fire

By JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- A devastating fire swept through a three-story brick home, killing eight children and an adult and leaving several others seriously injured in one of the city's deadliest blazes in recent years, authorities said.

Witnesses outside the home, a few blocks from Yankee Stadium, described seeing a woman hurling children through broken windows late Wednesday night in hopes of saving them from the raging inferno.

"All I see is just a big cloud of white dust and out of nowhere comes the first baby," said Edward Soto, who caught the child. He said he caught a second child thrown from the window moments later.

Screams of "help me, help me" were coming from the house, he said.

Fire Department spokesman Seth Andrews confirmed the death toll in the Bronx fire early Thursday. At least 10 people were injured, five of them seriously. The injured included four firefighters and another emergency worker who were hospitalized with minor injuries.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/ ... 8-02-34-08

Death toll rises to 10.

The poor fathers. One lost 6 of his children. His wife and 5 other children survived. The other lost his wife and 3 of his children. One of his children survived.

One father was on a business trip in Mali when he heard the news.

The other father was working as a taxi driver when he got a call from his wife screaming the house was on fire. She even told him she might die with the children. He called 911 and raced home, but it was too late.

Not counting 9/11, this was the deadliest fire in NYC since the 1990 Happy Land social club fire that killed 87. That fire was set by a man who wanted to get revenge on his girlfriend for kicking him out of the club. Ironically, she was one of the 6 survivors.

What a horrible tragegy!!! Prayers going out for the affected families.