UPDATED 1:50PM EST & EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS POSTED BELOW: A young child is R”L in critical condition following a blaze in a Boro Park home Wednesday night.
The FDNY & Boro Park Hatzolah were dispatched to numerous reports of a fire in a home on 47th Street between 18th & 19th Avenues at approximately 10:00PM.
Upon their arrival, they found fire spreading through the first floor of the private home, a 3 & 1/2 year-old child critically burned, and a 65-year-old babysitter with smoke inhalation.
Hatzolah Paramedics were unable to transported the child to a “Burn Center” – due to her critical condition, so Hatzolah transported her locally to Maimonides Hospital, where doctors were attempting to stabilize her.
She was scheduled to be transferred to the Staten Island Burn Center at midnight, but unfortunately, it was called off at the last moment due to her condition R”L deteriorating.
The babysitter was transported to the Staten island Burn Center, and is listed in stable condition.
Although there is speculation that the fire was caused by a Menorah, it has not been confirmed by FDNY Marshall’s which are still conduction their investigation.
Please be Mispallel for Tzivia Itta bas Chaya Sara.
YWN PHOTO LINK: Click HERE for exclusive photos from inside the home
UPDATE THURSDAY MORNING FROM NY DAILY NEWS:
A 3-year-old Brooklyn girl was fighting for her life Wednesday night after being pulled from a fire in her home sparked when a lighted menorah toppled over, officials and a witness said.
Hatzolah ambulance workers rushed the toddler to Maimonides Medical Center. She was suffering from third-degree burns and had gone into cardiac arrest, sources said.
Her baby-sitter was taken to Staten Island University Hospital. Two others were also injured in the 9:30 p.m. house fire on 47th St. in Borough Park.
Their conditions were unknown Wednesday night.
“The baby has a lot of burns and is very critical,” said a law enforcement source who saw the unconscious child strapped to an ambulance stretcher.
Doctors “intubated” the girl and planned on taking her to the Staten Island University Hospital’s burn unit, sources said.
“The smoke was so thick,” said Benjamin Ovitsh, 39. “I heard the kid screaming.”
Ovitsh was driving with his nephew, Eli, when he said he saw plumes of black smoke rising over 47th St.
He pulled over his car and dialed 911.
“I was screaming to get the kid out,” he said. “I was yelling, ‘There’s a kid crying in the room!'”
Ovitsh said he tried to run into the building but was blinded by soot and turned back.
He said he spotted a lighted menorah lying on the floor inside the home.
“The kid’s pajamas were burned through,” he said. “But the kid was breathing.”
An FDNY spokesman said the cause of the fire was under investigation.
Neighbors said the tot is one of five kids and has a twin sister. Her distraught parents, Sara and Yakov Friedman, weren’t home at the time. “”Just the baby-sitter,” said a 13-year-old boy who lives down the street.
The boy said he was busy celebrating the sixth night of Chanukah, where candles or oil burn all night long in homes across the city, when he heard the baby-sitter outside in the street crying for help.
“She was lost,” he said. “She was yelling. She didn’t make any sense. A neighbor ran outside and then all these fire trucks came.”
UPDATED 1:50PM EST: Please continue to be Mispallel for Tzivia Itta bas Chaya Sara, who has just been transferred to the Staten Island Burn Center, and remains in critical condition.
Additionally, WCBSTV has just posted the following update: Friends and neighbors gathered in front of Yakov and Sara Friedman’s home to say special prayers for 3-year-old Tsivia Friedman, who was badly burned a house fire Thursday.
Fire officials believed an oil-based menorah started the blaze on the first floor of the attached home on 47th Street. They said the home was not equipped with smoke detectors.
Tsivia suffered third-degree burns and went into cardiac arrest. She was fighting for her life at Staten Island University Hospital.
“They’re really wonderful, special people. There’s nobody like them. It’s a tragedy. I hope God sends a speedy recovery to this child,” said Tsivia Fryer, family friend.
A babysitter in her 70s was watching the five Friedman girls.
Borough Park residents were so grateful that the first firefighters rushed in to save the trapped child before they’d even begun trying to battle the flames.
“The first two engines pulled up and they were met at the door by neighbors who said there was a child in the back room. They call in before the line was stretched, and one of the firefighters found the baby, the 3-year-old I should say, on the floor, pulled her out and handed her to the ambulance who was right outside,” said Deputy Chief William Tanzosh.
The Friedmans were known to be wonderful neighbors in this community. “Beautiful, unbelievably nice people. on a scale of one to five, they are a five,” said Naftuli Schwartz, neighbor.
Besides the three-year-old girl, three others were taken to the hospital. Their injuries were not life-threatening, just smoke inhalation.
Neighbors said the 3-year-old girl has a twin sister, and was one of five children.
(Dov Gordon – YWN / NY Daily News)
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46 Responses
refuah sheleima
Why would you post pictures of this?? This is painful enough to hear about. I am crying as I write this, but do we really need visual aids? You call yourself Yeshiva News and you should uphold a certain standard.
I want to say a book of tehilim for Tzivia Itta but have a small baby and it’s difficult. I can say 1 through 10…
Somehow I don’t think photos of the fire are appropriate. I don’t think it’s fair to make a tragedy a piece of human interest. Rather daven and say tehillim.
I can say tehilim 11 through 20.
Stop criticizing the picture and daven: E-l noh refa no lohem
basic tznius ha’prat
i agree with #4. no photo credit just goes to show that the one who took them doesnt feel so good about it either.burnt or not, i wouldnt want any body snaping pictures of my living room and then posting them.
Thank you for posting the photos. If even one more person will take proper precautions around lit candles as a result of seeing these pictures, it is well worth it.
Yes, by all means, please daven for the little girl, but “Al Pi Derech Hateva” we also need to do what we can to prevent occurences such as these.
Refuah Sheleima!
I can say 21 – 30 (CHAF ALEF – LAMED)
I can say 31-40
I can say 40-45
I’ll say 41-50.
I agree with #8. Every year we hear tragedies about fires on Chanuka, on erev Pesach, and on Shabbos from candles or oil starting fires. People must be made aware and the best way is to scare them. Maybe if they see another family’s tragedy they will be more careful.
I can do 41-50
I can do 51-60
i’ll do 61-65. Thank you for doing this, Me keamcha Yisrael. If only everytime we saw something sad on YWN we would do this. It’s so beautiful!
I will do 65-70
i will do 66-76
Mi kiamcha yisroel! To see how random ppl take the intiative to say tehillim! Enough fighting and always finding fault in yeshiva world or what they write about! There is still good out there. B”H! May we be zocheh to see moshiach b’karov! Imagine the schar of the one who started this tehillim chain! Ashrecha v’tov lach! I’ll say tehillim 66-70
I’ll do 66-76
B”H they had an adult as a babysitter and not a 13 or even a 16 year old.
I’ll do 77-90
I have 77-80
# 20, I will do 91-100
i’ll do 81-100
My friend will do 101- 110
my other friend is doing 111 -120
We’ll do 111-118
my other friend will do 111-120
please please please check the smoke detectors in your homes!!! this is the second tragedy that i have seen that could have been avoided by this most basic of things that children are taught in kindergarten. at least, unlike the fist tragedy, the child lived.
wow baruch hashem for brave firefighters. i am saying tehilim too.
another person is doing 121-130
pls lets try to finish up the book, if you have any time pls say for this child
I’ll do 120-130.
said 131-140.
another person is doing 141 -150
and said 140-150.
140-150,, thanks for organizing,, we should hear good news
ill do 140 to 150
I’d like to say a few Kapitlach.
Please advise what should be said right now.
Will do her full name with 119 plus refua
While I think it’s inappropriate to post the photos of the inside of the house, they will hopefully make an impact and remind readers to check their smoke detectors.
A couple of $10 smoke detectors would have enabled the family to quicky exit and avoid injury.
Keep saying Tehillim for the child.
Mi K’amcha Yisroel, with the thilim group
look at the minutes of responses,
one after another and another……..
Also note that the firefighters had the Hatzola ambulances right there when they took the child out.
Mi k’amcha yisroel again and again….
May Tzivia Itta bas Chaya Sara have a gantze refuah. Umein.
we could start another book of tehilim or My Rav always suggests 121 kuf haf alef or just any… or just daven from your heart… daven with tears as the gate of tears is never closed. I once was burned slighly with scalding hot water and was in indescribable pain, like i was on fire. This was just from a cup of hot water. The pain this child is now going through is horrendous and her parents and family are hurting just as bad emotionally. A yiddishe child is our child even if we don’t know the family involved.
Mi kamcha yisroel!!! To come on to YWN and see the entire sefer tehillim taken by posters who have never even met the vicims in this story, but feel for every jew!!! What a tremendous kiddush Hashem!!!
Refuah Shelama B’Karov, Amen!
I will bake challos today with 40 other women, with a bracha, for a zechus for a complete refuah shelama. Mi K’amcha Yisrael! May we all be zocher for besurot tovot!
when people see tragic photos of car accidents or fires, it awakens a cautiousness in them.
May these photos be as a zechus, for the poor child, that this should never happen to ANYONE