Families prepare to sleep in relief affected by New York City fire | Stories

Funeral services are under way in the adjoining Bronx as a house fire killed 17 people Sunday.

A prayer call was heard in the Bronx mosque on Wednesday, with the bereaved planning to bury their dead in the coming days and families wishing to be locked up in New York City. very destructive fire in a few decades.

Among those awaiting the funeral are a two-year-old child, a mother who died and her three children, and a family of five children, as well as a couple whose four children are now widows.

“This group, these people have gone too far,” said Sheikh Musa Drammeh, a spokesman for the community. At least a dozen victims were worshiping at the Masjid-Ur-Rahmah mosque, which was almost destroyed on Sunday.

“Now she is crying, but she understands that if it had happened, it would have to happen,” she said. “And he has no right to ask why it happened.”

Community leaders are expected to convene Wednesday afternoon to prepare for the funeral and decide whether the deceased will be repatriated. Most of them died in the family fire at Bronx house had an alliance with Gambia.

“The most important thing is to help each other. We are all members of one community, so we are like a family, ”said Haji Dukuray, whose nephew Haja died in the fire along with her husband and three children – Fatoumata, five; Mariam, 11, and Mustafa, 12.

Mustafa had just celebrated his birthday, the night before the fire started. “Eyes as beautiful as angels,” said neighbor Renee Howard, 68, about Mustafa earlier this week.

The medical office said all those affected had collapsed with black smoke emanating from the third floor, while officials said a broken electric heater had caused a wildfire.

The fire did not spread far, but it emitted black smoke that had seeped into the barn before it filled the stairs. People ran to the dark stairs, some from the upper floors of the 19-story building. Many fled, but others fainted and died.

The victims ranged in age from two-year-old Ousmane Konteh to 50-year-old Fatoumata Drammeh, according to a list released by New York City police, as well as eight children.

Musa Kabba, an imam at Masjid-Ur-Rahmah, said the mosque was trying to organize prayers and funerals.

The medical examiner’s office did not release all the dead to their families.

Until then, families are waiting. Islamic rituals usually require that a funeral be held within 24 hours, but the mourning is also accompanied by a slow process in which loved ones are released from the funeral home.

“We are all anxious, to be honest with you,” Dukuray said. “It’s a very important thing to know right now and I can’t look at anything until this actually happens.”