New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, center, exits a house where seven children died in a fire Saturday in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn. Two in the home escaped and were in critical condition. (Kena Betancur, Getty Images)
NEW YORK — Seven siblings from an Orthodox Jewish family were killed early Saturday when a fire tore through their two-story Brooklyn home after they had gone to bed, a tragedy that authorities think was caused by a malfunctioning hot plate left on during the Sabbath.
The blaze took the lives of three girls and four boys — ages 5 to 16 — and left their mother and another child in critical condition. Fire officials said the flames would have prevented the mother, who escaped out a window, from trying to rescue her children.
"This is an unbelievable tragedy," said Mayor Bill de Blasio after touring the charred residence. "Every New Yorker is feeling this pain right now."
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro called it the city's worst fatal fire in recent memory.
"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 think a hot plate on a kitchen counter ignited flames that raced up the stairs, Nigro said.
Many religious Jews do not use electricity on the Sabbath, along with refraining from work and observing other prohibitions meant to keep the day holy. As a result, some families might leave them on so they are usable without violating religious laws or traditions.
The fire broke out after midnight while the children were asleep inside the home in Midwood, a leafy section of Brooklyn known for its low crime and large Orthodox Jewish population.
Firefighters arrived less than four minutes after receiving the call to find the mother, badly burned and distraught, outside and pleading for help. When they broke the door, they encountered a hopeless situation — a raging fire that had spread through the kitchen, dining room, common hall, stairway leading upstairs and the rear bedrooms.
After making their way through intense smoke and heat, firefighters found the young victims motionless in three of the four bedrooms in the home, officials said.
"It's difficult to find one child in a room during a search," Nigro said. "To find a houseful of seven children that can't be revived. ... "
Police officials identified the victims as members of the Sassoon family: three girls — 16-year-old Eliane, 11-year-old Rivkah and 6-year-old Sara — and four boys — 12-year-old David, 10-year-old Yeshua, 8-year-old Moshe and 5-year-old Yaakob.
Nigro said authorities think the father was away at a conference at the time of the fire. Neither his name nor those of the survivors were released.
Fire investigators found a smoke detector in the basement of the home. But none were found elsewhere in the house, Nigro said, adding, "To hear a smoke detector two floors below is asking a lot."
Many neighbors who spoke to reporters declined to give their names but expressed great sadness. The last residential blaze with a similar death toll happened in 2007, when eight children and an adult were killed in a fire in a 100-year-old building in the Bronx where several African immigrant families lived. Fire officials said an overheated space heater cord sparked that blaze.
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