February 11, 2009 5:14 PM
- Text
NYC Blaze Kills 8 Children, 1 Adult
(CBS/AP)
Screams poured from the burning building along with smoke and flames: "Help me! Help me! Please! Please!" Bystanders looked up to see a woman toss her children out the window one at a time to those below.
The scene unfolded early Thursday during New York's deadliest fire in nearly two decades — a blaze that killed eight children and one adult, all African immigrants who shared a row house near Yankee Stadium.
The woman who tossed her children jumped from the building. Her fate and that of her children were not immediately known.
Investigators believe the fire started overnight with a faulty space heater or overloaded power strip, ignited a mattress in the basement and quickly raced up the stairs of the four-story structure. Most of the 22 residents — 17 of them children — were stranded on the upper floors as the blaze raged out of control.
Neighbor Edward Soto ran toward the fire, then stared in disbelief as an infant was tossed from the building.
"They were screaming and yelling, 'Please save my baby.' We ran, I jumped the gate and she started tossing babies out the window," Soto told CBS station WCBS-TV.
One woman threw at least three children from a third floor window to people below. Two were caught, and one hit a discarded bathtub on the sidewalk and died. The woman then jumped and witnesses say she broke her legs.
Firefighters worked for two hours in freezing predawn temperatures to bring the flames under control. The home had two smoke alarms, but neither had batteries.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission calls it a common problem, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston.
"While there are 90 million smoke alarms in homes across America, 16 million of them don't work, that's 20 percent," said the CPSC's Julie Vallese.
Police said there was no evidence of a crime.
The dead were found throughout the house, mostly on the upper floors, with babies still in their cribs. The victims included five children from one family, along with a wife and three other children from a second family.
Word of the fire spread grief across two continents, from the Bronx to villages in Mali, a West African country about twice the size of Texas and one of the poorest nations in the world.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," said a devastated Mamadou Soumara, a livery cab driver whose wife, son and 7-month-old twins died in the blaze. "I love her. I love my wife."
Soumara was driving through Harlem when he received a frantic cell phone call from his wife, Fatoumata. "She said, 'We have a fire,"' Soumara recalled. "She was screaming."
The scene unfolded early Thursday during New York's deadliest fire in nearly two decades — a blaze that killed eight children and one adult, all African immigrants who shared a row house near Yankee Stadium.
The woman who tossed her children jumped from the building. Her fate and that of her children were not immediately known.
Investigators believe the fire started overnight with a faulty space heater or overloaded power strip, ignited a mattress in the basement and quickly raced up the stairs of the four-story structure. Most of the 22 residents — 17 of them children — were stranded on the upper floors as the blaze raged out of control.
Neighbor Edward Soto ran toward the fire, then stared in disbelief as an infant was tossed from the building.
"They were screaming and yelling, 'Please save my baby.' We ran, I jumped the gate and she started tossing babies out the window," Soto told CBS station WCBS-TV.
One woman threw at least three children from a third floor window to people below. Two were caught, and one hit a discarded bathtub on the sidewalk and died. The woman then jumped and witnesses say she broke her legs.
Firefighters worked for two hours in freezing predawn temperatures to bring the flames under control. The home had two smoke alarms, but neither had batteries.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission calls it a common problem, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston.
"While there are 90 million smoke alarms in homes across America, 16 million of them don't work, that's 20 percent," said the CPSC's Julie Vallese.
Police said there was no evidence of a crime.
The dead were found throughout the house, mostly on the upper floors, with babies still in their cribs. The victims included five children from one family, along with a wife and three other children from a second family.
Word of the fire spread grief across two continents, from the Bronx to villages in Mali, a West African country about twice the size of Texas and one of the poorest nations in the world.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," said a devastated Mamadou Soumara, a livery cab driver whose wife, son and 7-month-old twins died in the blaze. "I love her. I love my wife."
Soumara was driving through Harlem when he received a frantic cell phone call from his wife, Fatoumata. "She said, 'We have a fire,"' Soumara recalled. "She was screaming."
- 1
- 2
- Next Page »
Latest Now in National
- Coroner in Ohio changes ruling in 1972 death
- APNewsBreak: Satellite spots tanks in Syrian city
- APNewsBreak: Satellite spots tanks in Syrian city
- Ill. Sen. Mark Kirk moved to stroke rehab center
- Comedian's BYU black history video goes viral
- Explosion at Fla. horse center kills worker, horse
- Explosion at Fla. horse center kills worker, horse
- Fight breaks out at a funeral in Phoenix
- Mom who threw tot in NY river can go home to India
- Schoolgirls excluded from Dallas movie screening
- Woman pleads guilty in NY newborn kidnap case
- Developer may open rival Philadelphia newspaper
- Developer may open rival Philadelphia newspaper
- Dad of NYC subway bomb plotter gets 4 ½ years
- Dispatcher on Powell call: Case a 'nightmare'
- Explosion at Fla. horse center kills worker, horse
- Serial killer's tip leads to remains of 2nd body
Latest CBS News Headlines
on Facebook Most Discussed Stories
on CBS News
- UK launches major tourism campaign
- Oscar statues fly from Chicago to Los Angeles
- Study: Charleston gets fraction of cruise impact
- Group take aims at Grand Canyon development vote
on Facebook Most Discussed Stories
on CBS News
