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Mother and Three Children Killed in Brooklyn Fire Menorah Blamed for Brooklyn Fire That Killed Mother and 3 Children
(about 11 hours later)
Three children and their mother were killed and their father and other family members were badly injured when a fire shot up the stairways of a three-story home in Brooklyn early Monday, trapping part of the family inside as others fled through a side door or jumped out of a window. It was the sixth night of Hanukkah, and in a front room of the Azan family’s three-story Brooklyn home was an oil-burning menorah. The family placed it where the Talmud says to: in the window, so a passer-by could see.
After the flames were put out, the mother, 40, was found dead on the second floor of the single-family home, the authorities said. Nearby were her 3-year-old daughter, 7-year-old son and 11-year-old son. As the family slept around 2 a.m. on Monday, flames leapt from near the menorah, starting a fire that killed three Azan children and their mother and badly injured their father and other children, the Fire Department said.
Five others in the home were injured. The father was in critical condition, the authorities said, as were two children. The menorah, about two feet wide, burned oil held in small glass cups. Fire marshals suspect the glass may have cracked under extended heat exposure, spilling oil and spreading flames, a Fire Department official said.
Five firefighters were also injured, though none seriously, said Daniel A. Nigro, the New York City fire commissioner. From the first floor, the fire proceeded to rip through the Sheepshead Bay home, hurtling up two sets of staircases and trapping part of the family inside as others fled through a side door or jumped down from a second-floor landing.
Around 2 a.m., flames broke out in the front of the first floor, raced up the stairs to the second floor and climbed another set of stairs to the attic, where there were two more bedrooms, Mr. Nigro said. After firefighters extinguished the blaze, the mother, Aliza Azan, 39, was found dead on the second floor. So too, the police said, were Moshe Azan, 11; Yitzah Azan, 7; and Henrietta Azan, 3. They had all been asleep there.
Most of the survivors fled out a side door. A teenager escaped by jumping out of a window, and broke his pelvis as he did, Mr. Nigro said. The children’s father, Yosi Azan, ran through the second floor as flames clawed at him, trying to save his family, officials said. He helped a teenage son and teenage daughter out a window and onto the first-floor roof. They hesitated to jump, and so Mr. Azan apparently helped nudge them off the roof to safety, according to an account given to investigators.
But the mother and three of the children could not get out. When Mr. Azan reached the ground himself, he told a fire chief there were four people left inside, but the fire and smoke were too thick for firefighters to push through right away, the fire official said.
“They’d have to go down into the fire,” Mr. Nigro said. “They weren’t able to do that.” Both teenagers broke bones, one of them a pelvis. Mr. Azan and the two teenagers were taken to Staten Island University Hospital, where they were in critical condition and “fighting for their lives,” Daniel A. Nigro, the New York City fire commissioner, said. The father was believed to have internal burns from inhaling smoke.
At the sight of flames at 1946 East 14th Street, neighbors across the street dialed 911. Firefighters were in front of the home in two minutes and 40 seconds, Mr. Nigro said. Mr. Nigro said of the father, “I believe he acted very courageously and tried desperately, and hopefully it didn’t cost his life, too.”
“Coming right out the windows, oh my god,” a neighbor, who gave his name only as Albert, said. “Tragedy.” Two younger teenagers asleep in a back bedroom on the first floor, one of them a cousin of the Azan children, escaped out a side door with less serious injuries. They heard a smoke detector alarm and yelled to alert other members of their family, Mr. Nigro said. They were taken to Maimonides Medical Center.
Videos from the scene showed a 10-foot-tall flame dancing out of a second-floor window. Firefighters found the home engulfed in flames. The teenagers helped lead fire marshals to the cause when they told them that the menorah had been left burning after they went to sleep and that they saw the fire start nearby. Investigators recovered remnants of the broken menorah.
“What they were confronted with is fire meeting them at the front door,” Mr. Nigro said. “So the units, knowing there were people in the home, pushed in very aggressively.” Investigators had not found other smoke alarms beyond the one that activated on the first floor. The Fire Department recommends that people install them on every floor of a home.
Fire marshals are still investigating the cause of the fire. Mr. Nigro said the fire was “not suspicious, but accidental.” Five or six firefighters were injured, though none seriously, officials said.
Nine people were in the home: a mother and father, their six children and a cousin. “Over the last couple days, several other major fires have caused many injuries — some very serious — and displaced others from their homes,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “During the holiday season, we all need to be cautious with decorations, electric lights, candles, space heaters and other items.”
Around 100 firefighters battled the flames and tended to the injured. The fire was put out in about an hour, the authorities said. In all, nine people were in the home at 1946 East 14th Street: a mother and father, their six children and a cousin.
Those in critical condition were taken to Staten Island University Hospital, the authorities said. The police said two people were taken to Maimonides Hospital with minor injuries. Video from the scene showed fire pouring out of a second-floor window. Neighbors across the street called 911, possibly alerted by the alarm. Firefighters arrived two minutes and 40 seconds later. They confronted a home that was engulfed, Mr. Nigro said. Flames quickly overwhelmed the beige home.
Morris Levy, 63, a neighbor and friend of the father since they were young, said the family had only moved into the house from their old home on Ocean Parkway around six months ago. “Coming right out the windows, oh my God,” a neighbor, who gave his name only as Albert, said. “Tragedy.”
The father, whose name Mr. Levy declined to share, owned a suit business on Coney Island Avenue. The mother was the daughter of a rabbi, he said. The Azans are Syrian Jews who immigrated to the United States from Israel about 15 years ago, said Abby, 50, a relative of Ms. Azan who declined to give his last name.
“A very nice lady,” he said. “Such a beautiful family.” Ms. Azan cooked scrumptious Mediterranean meals for her six children, laughed with her husband’s constant jokes and kept the home a welcoming place for a stream of visitors, he said. The family had moved there only about six months ago.
Mr. Levy arrived at the burning house around 2:20 a.m. and saw battalions of firefighters doing their best. “She is a very good woman, religious, a very good mom, a sweet, typical mom,” Abby said, looking stricken. Across the street, firefighters shoveled ashes out of the shattered windows of the charred house.
“The fire was going very, very fast,” he said. Ms. Azan’s father, Avraham Hamra, is considered the chief rabbi of Syrian Jewry and is said to have helped hundreds of Jews escape to Israel. He lives in Jerusalem, Abby said. Ms. Azan met her husband in Israel.
Later Monday morning, dozens of firefighters stood in the dark in front of the beige family home, its windows smashed out and charred. Community members threw arms around grieving people and walked them away. Mr. Azan is a manager at a nearby clothing store called Hat Box, which sells shirts and shoes, said Avi Navon, 59. Mr. Azan is famous for his friendly service and for always giving his customers deals.
A woman who has lived in the neighborhood for 15 years and gave her name only as Nellie said her daughter, who lives next door, called her at 2:30 a.m. “terrified.” She rushed over and saw a man lay a grown woman down outside until paramedics arrived. The house was ablaze. “Always smile, always,” Mr. Navon said. “They were hardworking.”
“We saw flames coming out,” Nellie said, trembling. Mr. Navon’s son, Moses, 13, said he was friends with some of the Azan children. He described the family as loving, close and spirited. The boys often played basketball in nearby parks. And the children all loved to laugh with their father.
In video recorded by one of the first onlookers at the scene, a photographer who had been monitoring a police scanner, two teenage boys were being led away from the burning home as they frantically craned their necks back to look. One wept.
Avi, 20, who said his sister had called 911, said she told him that she watched people leap from the first-floor roof.
“Yosi was yelling, wanting to help his family,” Avi said of Mr. Azan, his voice trembling voice as his mother stood beside him with wet eyes. “But couldn’t do nothing.”
Two years ago, seven children were killed nearby when a hot plate warming food for the Sabbath started a fire in a family home.
Mr. Azan had posted about it on Facebook.
“I know the family,” he wrote. “It’s something that is beyond comprehension. Three of the children study with my children. 7 children.”