A fire ripped through a private home in Flatbush on the first night of Yom Tov, leaving a young child R”L dead, and leaving an entire family in the hospital.
The FDNY and Hatzolah received frantic calls at approximately 9:30PM, reporting a fire in a home on Avenue P and East 12th Street, with multiple children trapped inside. Dozens of Hatzolah members were rushed to the scene, and the FDNY quickly called for a second alarm. Moments later a third alarm was called.
Unfortunately, the fire claimed the life of 8-year-old Avigdor Krasny A”H.
Five other children were ultimately saved by their father, who moved swiftly to escort them out of the house. Bichasdei Hashem, the neighbor living on the first floor with 13 children, made it out unharmed.
As of Motzei Shabbos, the parents, and 5 children were all hospitalized in the Staten island Burn Unit – two of them on respirators.
Misaskim worked tirelessly with the numerous agencies involved to ensure proper Kavod Haniftar would be given, and a Misaskim spokesperson tells YWN that the cooperation of the NYC Medical Examiner, the NYPD and the FDNY were incredible, as they showed unparalleled sensitivity to the family and the community as the fire happened on the first of a three-day Yom Tov. In fact the Commanding Officer of the NYPD’s 61 Pct, the NYPD Chief of Brooklyn South (Joseph Fox), and Detective Adam Berish of the Police Commissioners Unit, made a special trip to visit the family in Staten Island on Shmini Atzeres.
Four firefighters also suffered minor injuries.
UPDATE: The Levaya is scheduled for Sunday at 12:00PM at Rabbi Avigdor Millers Shul, also known as the Bais Yisroel Torah Center. The Shul is located on Ocean Parkway between Avenue R and S.
UPDATE: A meeting of leading Rabbonim just concluded in Flatbush, and information will be posted in the near future how one can go about helping both families. It should be noted that not only is one Mekayim the Mitzvah of Tzedakah, but the Mitzvah of “Viohavta Es Hager” as well.
UPDATE: All those who wish to help those affected by the fire, please click HERE to donate.
Boruch Dayan Emmes…
(Yehuda Drudgestein – YWN)
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29 Responses
names foe tehillim?
fyi; this is a family of geirim who had very little and now have nothing!!
They are raising money for them
I know them personally special people
please help!!!!
please post how to help
Pleas include information so we can help this family
i was sitting in a hatzoloh members sukkah and heard the whole thing go down real time. you could hear a pin drop for the rest of the meal. there are no words. h’ yeracheim. may they ALL have a refueah shelaima and may h’ give them the strength to cope with their indescribable loss…
Hashem should comfort the family in this tragic time. And by the way, there is no need for YWN to post a picture of the fire. People who were out there see that fire etc. No need to post video of other people’s tragedy.
Headline is wrong. It should say “tragedy strikes entire jewish community around the world” as this affects and stings us all. Our heart breaks.
baruch dayan ha emet!
we should all learn from this and do teshuvah!
rabbi krasny is a great man and so is his entire family.
hashem yerachem!
#2. How do we help? Where do we send donations?
Elk… please provide details on how the “tzibur” can help. Be specific. May the RS”O have ‘rachmanus’ on his children.
Does anyone have the names, so the tzibbur can say Tehillim?
Please say Tehillim for:
Shimon ben Chana
Miriam bas Chana
Yitzchok ben Chana
Etil bas Chana
Yaakov ben Avrohom
The names are:
Shimon Ben Chana,
Nosson Tzvi Ben Chana,
Miriam Bas Chana,
Yitzchok Eisick Ben Chana,
Etya Bas Chana.
Refuah Sheleima Bsoch Sheor Cholei Yisroel.
re: It should be noted that not only is one Mekayim the Mitzvah of Tzedakah, but the Mitzvah of “Viohavta Es Hager” as well.
And a very unique family who someone who knows them well described as a family whose Midos have no equal.
12., Shouldn’t the name be Yaakov ben Sara?
Thank you.
Forgive me, but is the name of the mother missing from the above lists and need it be included? Do we know the name?
Any word on the cause and is there something for all of us to learn from this terrible tragedy?
This is my brother in law. My wife’s brother and his family that this happened too. They are a great family and they can use all the help they can. We are military stationed in Korea and cannot be there.
But any assistance thatis needed feel free to contact me at [email protected].
thank you.
When a tragedy of this magnitude hits klal yisroel there’s always three things that must be addressed. The first to be ‘mishtatef ‘in the pain of another yid – one cannot imagine what this family is going through. And second to strengthen our ‘emunah’ in H-shem and realize that after all is said, it only happened because that was the rotzoin of Hashem and that everything Hashem does is for the good. And thirdly one has to be very careful not to speak negative or badly about Hashem that how could he do this or even to say every day another tragedy or what’s next, as if to imply that all is bad and all is wrong c”v. WHEN A PERSON IS A TRUE PERSON OF FAITH & TRUST IN HASHEM. HE GETS TO BE THE HAPPIEST PERSON IN THE WORLD. This is a nisayon for the parents in bitachon & emunah in hashem (just like aharon hakohen when his children died he was quiet & had faith in Hashem…). If its not possible for a person to pass a test from Hashem he is not given the test. Its a time like this that one has to remind oneself of all the ‘hatovah’ and all the chesed that H-shem does for all of us ALL the time.
Every person has a job to fulfill in this world. now the child has done his job & is ready to go to the olam ha’emes (true world)& you two special people (parents) were the chosen agents of Hashem to take care of this child. May hashem reward you for this.& may his neshama have an aliyah & your lives be filled with only Simcha.
listen….please do not take this the wrong way….I am a jew, but I am not observant as you all here. Being military for most of my life I look at things a little differently. I agree when its your time its your time…I have lost many a brother to war. But some things are preventable….this makes no sense to me. But you are telling me that god made this child suffer for a reason? what kind of reason could a child suffer for?
To #20)LANGLRRB,
I noticed that you mentioned that you are a brother in law to Reb Yaakov and I would like to convey my heartfelt condolences to your immediate family on such a loss. Avigdor at the young age of 8 years old to be taken away from such unbelieveable parents who have chosen so many years ago to become Jewish and to build such a family as they have, is a true tragedy not only for their family but for the whole community that they live with as well. You mention that this makes no sense and you say that this was preventable and no one knows other than the One Above, why such a tragedy happens, but we as Orthodox Jews believe that we cannot question G-d and we have learnt to accept acts of G-d. The young child, Avigdor was as mentioned by his father at the funeral a beautiful,well liked,smart boy who was a pure neshoma (soul) going back to his creator (G-d) and did not have a scratch on him when he was brought out from the devastating fire. There was no sign of suffering as unbelievable as this may sound.When your brother in law, Reb Yaakov spoke at the funeral and said “how the smoke was so dense and he and his wife took out all the other children to safety and he was unable to get back to Avigdor”, you would think at least, something would leave a mark on little Avigdor. A burn mark, or a sign of smoke, but nothing at all, only adding to what was said. That Avigdor was a pure Korbon (sacrifice) to Hashem (G-d)for us, meaning everyone in the community at large. Yes, the pain is certainly the hardest for Reb Yaakov and his wonderful wife and their immedate family, but we all must feel the pain as well,when such a tragedy happens and we must all do Teshuva (repent) for all the things that we do wrong as G-d wants to teach us something when he takes such a beautiful boy away in such a tragic way. May we never hear of such tragedies in the future and may we see in the near future the coming of Moshiach. As well may G-d continue to protect you as well as all the many soldiers that are in the military protecting our country.
My wife is also a sister of Yacov’s and we are devastated by the loss of our dear nephew Avigdor, A’H’.
We live in Los Angeles and only learned of the tragedy Sunday, having no way of knowing until then what had taken place over the days of Yomtov and Shabbos.
Thank you to the Flatbush community for all of your wonderful support and outpouring of chessed for our dear family as well as your tefilas and tehillim for rafuah shalayma for the other injured children still in the hospital.
Thank you also to those who offer comfort through words of Torah and the wisdom it continually presents to us, even in the face of the unimaginable.
I humbly request anyone who can do so, please aid this family of Tzadikim by helping to replace the items from the home they have lost.
Yacov and Chani have been a source of inspiration to my wife and me since before they moved to New York, and it is no surprise to us that they have become so beloved in the community there. May they, and we all, only know simchas.
For whatever reason this bothers me more than anything that has bothered me before.
I want to know how an electrical fire even happened? who owned that house? When was the last time the house had been checked? Were there smoke alarms and fire alarms?
You say he didn’t suffer? how do you know?
I know yaacov and I know he did EVERYTHING in his power to make sure his kids were safe….I believe nothing less, and I feel for this whole family like you couldn’t believe. but for you to say that child didn’t suffer is unbelieveable. Were YOU in the room filled with smoke? were you in the room when that 8-year-old child was scared to death and had NO ONE? he suffered. He couldn’t breathe, there were bars on the window that the fire fighters couldn’t get through…..he suffered.
You say god it trying to teach us something from this? what could be taught from making an 8-year-old boy suffer?
But I will thank everyone in the community for their help in taking care of the Krasny’s. From what I understand, you all have been very kind to them and have helped them in ways which cannot be measured.
LANGLRRB,
It is clear how much pain you are in. I know the Krasny family, especially Chani, and I know how special they are. I wish, wish, wish I could be like Chani and raise my family the way she is raising hers. They live a life of complete devotion and self-sacrifice and you can see it right away when you meet them.
I want to add a bit to what BOND said. You are so right that we do not know what Avigdor went through. And we cannot possibly know G-d’s reasons for why a tragedy like this could happen.
I heard a beautiful allegory about suffering. The world is like a tapestry, but we’re standing underneath it, looking up at the knots and tangles and threads crisscrossing each other in bewildering ways. To us humans, it looks so ugly, so confusing, and impossible to understand. Only from above can the beautiful picture be seen.
As far as learning a lesson from this–a Jew is a person who is always trying to learn and grow. Chani Krasny is a paradigm of this. She tries to learn something from every event that happens to her. We can’t say that G-d made this happen to teach us a lesson, but we can take the pain that we feel and become better people from it.
May G-d comfort you and all the members of your family, and may G-d give you and your family success in your mission of helping to protect our country.
Midwood, NY – Investigators with the New York City Fire Department say an electric griddle is to blame for last week’s deadly three-alarm fire in Brooklyn. They say the griddle was left on, igniting a wooden counter in the kitchen at a home on Avenue P in Midwood Wednesday night.
an you send the link to that article? Did it say what floor it was on?
http://brooklyn.ny1.com/content/top_stories/126532/electric-griddle-blamed-in-fatal-brooklyn-fire
My school is doing a machsom l’fi in his zchus but we need his name. Does anyone know what it is ben what his father’s is? thank you
Father’s name is Yaakov.
zmother’s name is Chana.