Three little kids and a young dad died in a raging Bronx house fire early Sunday — as the terrified children desperately banged on the windows crying and screaming “Help me, God!” shaken neighbors and authorities said.
“You could see their little hands banging on the windows,” resident Merlyn Persaue, 60, recounted through tears. “They were screaming, the children, ‘Hey Allah! Hey Allah!’ which means, ‘Help me, God! Help me, God.’
“I see the hands in the windows, and then the flames wash up on the windows, and then there was no more sound,” the neighbor said.
The dead victims included three brothers, ages 10, 12 and 22, relatives and neighbors said.
The tragic 22-year-old brother’s baby, a 10-month-old girl, also died, they said.
“They were trapped,” Persaue said of the victims. “Three guys were running up the stairs and kicking the doors as hard as they could but they couldn’t open them. They kept trying till it was too late.”
The little boys both died at the scene, while their older brother and his baby were taken to the hospital, where they did not survive, cops said.
Mayor Eric Adams arrives at the scene of the fatal fire. Tomas E. Gaston
The burnt-out remains of the home on Quimby Avenue. Tomas E. GastonA distraught Imlaque Chowhury, 30, who lives in a home right up against 2165 Quimby Ave. in Castle Hill, where the blaze broke out around 6 a.m., said he helped save the boys’ mother and her only surviving son.
“[The] woman and little boy were banging on my window. They were screaming, they were crying, and the black smoke was coming out behind them,” Chowhury said.
“I opened the window, and I grabbed them both and pull them inside. What else could I do? One of those kids that plays with my niece. I looked outside, and I saw the man running around. I thought that everyone had gotten out. I could have gone down, I could have helped. I could have done more. But I didn’t know. I thought everyone had gotten out.”
Two men ages 22 and 41 remain hospitalized after suffering injuries in the blaze. Several firefighters also suffered minor injuries.
Dramatic video shows firefighters pulling a baby and an adult out of the building. The video shows them performing CPR on the adult victim and running with the baby to an ambulance.
“I was woke up by the kids screaming,” said Julio Almodovar, 44, of the raging fire across the street from his home. “You could hear a girl screaming, ‘Allah! Allah!’ over and over.”
Firefighters worked for over an hour to put out the blaze, FDNY Assistant Chief Kevin Brennan said.
Two men remain hospitalized after suffering injuries in the fire.
“On arrival, our units found heavy fire on the second floor … and also on the first floor,” Brennan said. “We immediately went to work removing some of the victims.”
Fire marshals have yet to determine the cause of the blaze, Mayor Eric Adams told reporters at the scene Sunday afternoon.
“It’s just one of those unfortunate situations,” Adams said after speaking to the father of the brothers.
“He lost his children. And it’s extremely painful.
“I’ve been through two fires,” Adams said. “One destroyed my home in Brooklyn as a child. I know how your mind is moving in different places, just racing.
The dead victims included three brothers, ages 10, 12 and 22, relatives and neighbors said. Daniel Valls/Freedomnews.tv“But you know, this is a block of the Yemeni community so the … community is going to rally around his family.”
Neighbor Anwar Abdo described the family as a regular presence in the community.
“I see them at the mosque all the time,” Abdo said.
More than 100 firefighters battled the blaze.
