Deadly Fire in Brooklyn Renews Concerns Over a Weekly Ritual - New York Times

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Lt. Bruce Silas, left, and Lt. John Errico with fire-safety information in Midwood, Brooklyn. Credit Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

In the hours after a malfunctioning hot plate started a fast-moving blaze that killed seven brothers and sisters in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Brooklyn on Saturday, a Fire Department official went door to door at nearby homes handing out pamphlets titled “Fire Safety for Jewish Observances.”

“Stay in the kitchen — don’t leave cooking food unattended,” warned the first item on the list of precautions.

For observant Jews, that admonition is hard to reconcile with the religious tenets that govern how they are to behave on the Sabbath, the weekly day of rest. From sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday, those who observe the Sabbath do not work, write, use electricity — or cook. If they want a hot meal during that time, they must prepare their food — often a popular stew called cholent — ahead of time and leave it warming overnight.

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While the household sleeps, the Saturday meal is kept warm either on an electric hot plate or atop what is known in Yiddish as a blech, a metal plate that sits on a gas burner set to low. Fire Department officials said the fatal fire in Midwood, Brooklyn, in an observant Jewish household, had started with a malfunctioning hot plate sitting on a first-floor kitchen counter.

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The house in Midwood, Brooklyn, where a fire began early Saturday in the kitchen. Seven children, ages 5 to 15, were killed. Credit Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

“As folks keep food warm over the course of the Sabbath, unattended appliances can be dangerous,” Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said at a news conference in Midwood on Saturday. “We’ll look for help from the community and will offer advice on how people can observe the Sabbath and do it safely.”

On Saturday, Lt. Bruce Silas of the Fire Department’s fire safety education unit manned a sidewalk table up the street from scene of the deadly blaze, passing out fire-safety literature and 9-volt batteries for smoke detectors. He said many people from the neighborhood had approached to ask him about the safety of using hot plates. (Sabbath rules, however, prohibited those who were observant from taking the literature or batteries until after sundown.)

“We recommend that they don’t,” he said. “But religion is one thing, and fire safety is very difficult to enforce.”

Just about everybody in Midwood uses a hot plate, said Mike Kaus, 65, who works at a stationery store in the neighborhood. “In the old days, you would leave the stove on with a metal plate on the flame,” he said. “The only way that you can keep the food warm is with a hot plate.”

Suzan Golian, 32, who was out walking with her three children in Midwood, said she used a tin blech over a gas flame. Though electric hot plates are increasingly common, she said she was scared to buy one.

“The stove is more safe,” she said, adding, “And even then, you have to be careful. I’m very scared of fire. Even when I light candles for Shabbos, I’m scared,” she said, using the Yiddish word for the Sabbath.

Orthodox Jews are forbidden to cook on the Sabbath, and lighting a flame is also prohibited on the day of rest. Using a blech or a hot plate is just one of many customs the observant follow in order to adhere to Sabbath rules: Because they cannot alter the temperature of food, they cannot stir a stew, cover a pot or change the amount of water in it.

Studies in Israel have found that hot plates, along with urns of water kept near boiling to use for baths during the Sabbath, are significant risk factors in burn cases among the ultra-Orthodox.

Mr. Kaus said the Fire Department usually made rounds in the neighborhood around the time of the major Jewish holidays to educate residents about fire safety. The visits, he added, usually focused on the proper use of Sabbath candles.

Observant Jews do not tend to discuss fire safety, Sarah Tawil, another Midwood resident, said.

“We need to make sure that everyone in the community has a smoke alarm,” she said. “Nobody talks about that.”

Another Midwood resident, Leah Feldman, said that in the wake of the fire, she planned to urge her daughter to get rid of her electric hot plate. Ms. Feldman said she herself used a traditional tin blech on the stove, but made sure to use only one burner to minimize risk. She said the fire had her worried about the safety of keeping food warm on holidays.

“The quandary is like on holidays, on the Sabbath, you want to feed your family good food, warm food,” Ms. Feldman said. “And what it would mean is you’d have to eat everything at room temperature.”

Joseph Berger contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on March 22, 2015, on page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: Fire Renews Concerns Over a Weekly Ritual .

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