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'Help me, God': Bronx house fire kills 4 including 3 children as they screamed and banged on windows

The dead victims included three brothers, aged 10, 12 and 22, and the daughter of the 22-year-old who is a 10-month-old baby

CASTLE HILL, THE BRONX: A tragic house fire in the Bronx took the lives of four people on Sunday, October 30. The dead victims included three brothers, aged 10, 12, and 22, and the 10-month-old daughter of the 22-year-old man. Meanwhile, a 41-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman were critically injured in the fire. However, the cause of the fire is still unknown and under investigation.

The blaze happened in a two-story brick house on Quimby Avenue near Castle Hill Avenue early at 6 am. Meanwhile, the 10 and 12-year-old brothers died at the scene. However, the eldest died at Jacobi Medical Center along with his baby daughter. Three firefighters also have injuries as they were battling the fire, reported Penn Live. Further, more than 100 firefighters from 25 FDNY units responded to the scene, reported anews.com

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“The family almost ended in a couple of minutes. We are all very sad, as you see. It’s not an easy thing," said Nagib Aldaylam, the baby’s uncle to Penn Live. However, the mother of the children escaped from the fire along with its only surviving child by pounding on a window of a neighbor. The two homes are separated by a small gap. “He lost his children and it’s extremely painful. So the block and community is going to rally around this family, and this city is going to rally around this family," said Mayor Eric Adams, who spoke to the patriarch of the family.

FDNY Assistant Chief Kevin Brennan said, “We had heavy fire on the second floor, venting out almost every window." The team reached the spot within four minutes after reporting the same. Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson who spoke after visiting the site said, “No one expects this on an early Sunday morning, to be awoken by the sound of fire trucks and fire alarms and to hear the screams of people jumping out of windows,” she said. “My heart broke because as a parent you never ever want to be told your child has been lost due to a fire when you tried everything to save their lives.”

According to New York Post, Merlyn Persaue, a neighbor claimed, “You could see their little hands banging on the windows. 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. They were trapped. 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.”

Brennan told New York Post, "On arrival, our units found heavy fire on the second floor… and also on the first floor. We immediately went to work removing some of the victims.” A neighbor Carla Cornielle said to NBC, "When I come out, I see fire, I see this man just panicking, just screaming for his family. He said 'my kids, my kids are all up there help!' "I gave him the hammer. He was trying to break the door with the hammer, but he couldn't, so he tried to break the window next to it."

Imlaque Chowdhury, one of the neighbors, said to Penn Live, “My wife woke me up. I ran to the other side of the house because I heard noise. When I looked out the window I couldn’t see anything, it was all black everywhere, and then I continued to hear the knocking and then I noticed they were standing there,” he said. "I heard the screaming of the lady. Once I heard her I came, opened the window and grabbed her and the kid and brought them inside my house. I saw the fire, it was all through the windows, everything,” he added.

“Every single window was just insane, intense. I can feel the heat from my house, smell the burning wood," Chowdhury said as the fire has caused damage to him home as well, "The whole apartment is burnt. Everything is gone. I’m just trying to figure out what to do. I’m just very sad for the family next door.” Chowdhury added, “They’re our neighbors. The children used to play with the other neighbors’ children, playing out in the front. They’re very good kids and really nice people. I’m going to miss the kids, seeing them all the time, saying hello.”

Chowdhury who also spoke to New York Post added, “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.”