Hot plate may have sparked fire that killed 7 NYC children

Kevin McCoy | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Hot plate may have sparked fire that killed 7 NYC kids Police are investigating what sparked a blaze that left 7 children dead and two others, including the mom, critically injured. Authorities say a hot plate may have been the cause of the fire.

NEW YORK — Seven siblings were killed and two other family members were in critical condition Saturday after an overnight fire ripped through their Brooklyn home, fire officials said.

Firefighters found the children, all between the ages of 5 and 16, in upstairs bedrooms of the two-story brick-and-wood single-family home.

The children's mother and an eighth sibling escaped by jumping from second-floor windows. They were rushed to area hospitals and reported in critical condition, New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said during a Saturday morning news conference near the scene.

Seven children dead in Brooklyn house fire A fire that tore through a home in a heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood, leaving seven children dead and two other people in critical condition, may have been caused by a malfunctioning hotplate, the fire commissioner said Saturday. (March 21)

The father was away at a conference and could not immediately be contacted, he said.

"This is the largest tragedy by fire that this city has had in seven years," said a clearly shaken Nigro. "Seven children lost their lives."

The FDNY received an alert at 12:23 a.m. about the blaze between Avenues L and M in the Midwood neighborhood. About 110 firefighters raced to the scene and brought the fire under control at 1:24 a.m., the fire department said.

The tree-lined area of Brooklyn is known for relatively low crime rates and its large Orthodox Jewish population.

A preliminary investigation showed the fire started in the home's kitchen, apparently sparked by a malfunction in an electrical hot plate, Nigro said. The family members are Orthodox Jews, who typically use hot plates to keep food warm during the Saturday Sabbath, when cooking and everyday chores are not allowed, he said.

There were no signs of fire detectors in the home's first or second floors, but there was one in the basement, Nigro said.

Firefighters reached the scene in less than 3½ minutes after the first alert came in, he said. The responders weren't hampered by Friday's snow and overnight temperatures below freezing, Nigro said.

The New York Post reported that as firefighters worked to put out the fire, paramedics struggled to help the victims.

Neighbor 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.

A neighbor who gave only her first name, Bonnie, told The New York Times that the mother, a beautiful and popular girl in high school, had married in 1998 and moved to Israel, and that her husband worked in banking.

She had returned to Brooklyn about two years ago, moving into the Brooklyn house where she grew up, in order to be closer to her large extended family in Midwood, Bonnie, 40, told the paper. The mother's parents live in New Jersey, she said.

"They're a very close-knit family," Bonnie said. "It's a tragedy."

Another friend of the mother, who declined to give her name to The New York Times, described her as "wonderful."