city's deadliest fire in 17 years

**جوري** · 03-11-2007

I don't know if you guys are aware of this story? I would urge any of you who can help to call the Mali embassy (202)332-2249
and send donations of condolences for this man.... He broke my heart... saw him on TV he looked stunned!... all he said was "Allah Akbar"....
this is a horrible tragedy...... "ina lilah wina elyhi raji3oon"

NEW YORK - An African-born businessman who lost five of his children and four relatives in the city's deadliest fire in 17 years flew home to the U.S. Friday after learning the devastating news while on a trip in his native Mali.

Moussa Magassa's mosque had already started helping the extended family plan for the funerals, and several mosques were gathering donations for them Friday, Imam Konate Souleimane said.

The tentative plan was to fly the only adult killed in the blaze, Fatoumata Soumare, and her three children to Mali for burial, while Magassa's children would be buried in the New York area, he said.

"These people are good Muslims," said Dukary Camara, a spokesman for Islamic Cultural Center, where Soumare's husband joined other grieving relatives and supporters in prayer Thursday night.

"They understand that what is destiny for them, there's nothing that can prevent that from happening," he said.

The fire started late Wednesday night with a space heater and quickly climbed through the three-story house near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, authorities said. Inside, the adults apparently tried to extinguish the flames themselves, but those on the upper floors were trapped.

Mamadou Soumare was driving his livery cab through Harlem when he got a frantic call from his wife.

"She said, 'We have a fire,'" he recalled. "She was screaming."

"I might die with my kids," she told him.

Mamadou Soumare called 911, but by the time he got home, the house was a fiery tomb. Two neighbors, Edward Soto and David Todd, had rescued a couple of children tossed from a window, but for the others it was too late.

Neighbor Charles O'Neal, 21, said he saw firefighters pass along babies still clad in their pajamas and lay two dead children on sheets of white plastic.

Family members identified the dead as Fatoumata Soumare, 42, her son Dgibril and 7-month-old twins Sisi and Harouma. The couple's fourth child, 7-year-old Hasimy, escaped, her father said. Family members provided different name spellings than the authorities did.

Magassa lost four sons - Bandiougou, 11, Mahamadou, 8, Abudubucary, 5, and Bilaly, 1, and his 3-year-old daughter Diaba. Their mother and six siblings survived. City records and phone listings spell their surname as Magassa, although various other spellings were provided after the fire.

"It's very, very, very sad what has happened," said Imam Mahamadou Soukouna, a Muslim cleric and family friend. He described Magassa, an official of the New York chapter of the international High Council for Malians Living Abroad, as "the best in our community."

Twenty-two people in all lived in the home's two apartments a few blocks from Yankee Stadium, 17 of them children.

At least three children were among the injured. A 7-year-old girl was in critical condition at Jacobi Medical Center, and a pair of 6-year-olds were upgraded from critical to good condition and transferred to Lincoln Hospital.

The home had two smoke alarms but the batteries were missing, authorities said.

The family that owned the building had planned renovations, including sprinklers that would have drenched the hallways and the home's central stairwell in the event of a fire, city records show. A change to multi-family status would have also required the at least one additional fire-resistant stairwell, city buildings officials said, but the project was suspended by the city for further evaluation.

The fire was the city's deadliest since the 1990 Happy Land social club blaze in the Bronx killed 87 people, with the exception of the World Trade Center attacks.

Near the home Friday, neighbors added to a memorial of flowers, notes and stuffed animals. The family van was still parked in the driveway, its roof strewn with debris