A seven-month-old boy sleeping in a crib was R”L killed on Shemini Atzeres when a fire ripped through the top floor of his family’s Brooklyn home at 604 East 3rd Street and Cortelyou Road.
Menachem Goldman A”H died after his frantic mother, Basya, was unable to fight through the choking smoke and reach the attic of the Kensington house in the minutes after the blaze erupted at 11:20AM.
“The mom went upstairs, but she started choking and her sister pulled her downstairs,” said a neighbor who declined to give her name. An FDNY lieutenant also said that they were trying to get a child out, but I guess it was just too late.
Fire investigators believe the deadly blaze was sparked by a faulty timer that was rigged to an air conditioner in the baby’s third-floor room.
Basya Goldman, a school principal at Yeshiva Ruach Chaim, and her husband, ran through the smoke and safely evacuated their other five children, all under the age of 12, neighbors said.
More than 60 firefighters, battled the blaze, which was deemed under control shortly after noon.
No other injuries were reported.
UPDATE 11:35PM EST: A Misaskim spokesman has informed Yeshivaworld that the Levaya has just taken place in Shomrei Hadas Chaples, and then at Kennedy Airport – where the Niftar was taken to Eretz Yisroel. He also requested that we publicly thank the NYC Medical Examiner, the FNDY and NYPD for their amazing cooperation during this time of tragedy (which occurred on a Yom Tov).
(Source: NY Daily News)
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4 Responses
Baruch Dayen Emes! The father is on plane to bury her in E”Y and mother is sitting shiva right away. May we never hear of such tragidies!!
I know who she is. She is also the Head Counselor at Ruach Day Camp for Girls. What a tragedy! Boruch Dayan Hoemes!
Borach Dayin Emes!
There were news reports that the timer was not rated to handle heavy appliances and was overloaded. Please everybody, when using Shabbos clocks on air conditioners make sure they are heavy duty ones that could handle them and not the cheaper ones which are only meant for lights.
Whether that was the case here, I don’t know, but those little things that allow you to plug a 3 prong plug into a 2 prong outlet should be banned, destroyed, and never seen again. Rabboisai, if your plug does not fit into your Shabbos Clock, DON’T USE IT!!! It means that the Shabbos Clock CAN’T HANDLE IT. Please, don’t mess with electricity, it’s smarter than you.