15 Bronx fire victims to be remembered at joint funeral Sunday

A large memorial has grown outside the scene of Sunday's devastating fire

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Sunday, January 16, 2022

15 Bronx fire victims to be remembered at joint funeral Sunday

Sandra Bookman has more on the joint funeral service to remember the victims of the fire in the Bronx.

TREMONT, Bronx (WABC) -- More tears are sure to be shed on Sunday for the victims of the Bronx fire tragedy.

Fifteen of the victims will be remembered at a joint funeral. It is set to start at 10 a.m., the very same hour when, Last Sunday, smoke from a fire inside an apartment began filling the entire high rise.

Sunday marks a week since the calamity that claimed 17 lives at the 19-story building on East 181st Street in the Tremont section.

Eight of the victims were children.

ALSO READ: Top floor resident saves 3-year-old girl from Bronx high rise fire, reunites her with mother

Jim Dolan interviews Mahamed Keita, who is being lauded a hero after helping save a 3-year-old girl from a deadly apartment fire in the Bronx and reuniting her with her mother.

The fire was ignited by a space heater inside a unit on the third floor. The apartment's front door did not close when the tenants fled. One of those tenants spoke to Eyewitness News.

"You can't see nothing everywhere. Thick smoke, dark - you can't see nothing, so we go to our neighbor's apartment and we locked the door," said Mamadou Wague.

FDNY Commissioner Nigro says the door was not obstructed.

"The door when it was fully opened stayed fully opened, because it malfunctioned," Nigro added.

Nigro also says another self-closing door on the 15th floor also malfunctioned. The stairwells and halls became a giant chimney.

The youngest of the victims was two years old - the oldest, just 50.

A funeral for all but two of them is set to take place at the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx.

Almost as quickly as the disaster unfolded, help began arriving.

ALSO READ | How you can help families affected by Bronx fire