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The Passover celebration turned to grief in a Jewish community in Brooklyn Monday morning, as three boys died and four other people were injured in a fast-moving fire.
The flames broke out shortly before 6 a.m. on the second floor of 104 Ross Street, a six-story apartment building near Bedford Avenue, according to fire officials.
Investigators say the fire likely started in a gas stove, by accident, but they don’t know if someone was cooking at the time. Jewish tradition prohibits the lighting of fires on the first days of the Passover holiday, so many families leave their stoves on.
The three boys killed in the fire are 7-year-old Israel Falcowitz and his two uncles, 13-year-old Judas Matyas and 15-year-old Eugene Matyas.
Two women, a 21-year-old and an 18-year-old, were able to jump out the window of the apartment, and firefighters rescued two other adults. They were taken to local hospitals along with two firefighters who received minor injuries.
Many residents of the building, which is in a predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, had just wrapped up their second Passover Seder, which often continues through the night.
“Very nice people,” a local resident said of the victims’ family. “They do a lot of good things to help people. Nice children. It's a terrible thing.”
“It's really painful for our community, and we hope it shouldn’t happen, something like that," said another neighbor.
The Fire Department says there were smoke detectors in the apartment. One neighbor says the setup of the victims' apartment may have made it difficult for them to escape.
“You come out from the kitchen right next to the main doorway, or you go through the window, you’re jumping out,” said the man. “You're trapped."
This neighborhood is in between two firehouses that the Bloomberg administration closed for budget reasons. Just last year, four people died in a fire not far from here.
Residents ask whether some might have been saved if those firehouses were open. But the FDNY says firefighters reached this latest fire in 3 minutes, 50 seconds.
Funerals for the three boys are being held Monday, in accordance with Jewish tradition.
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