"We Have A Fire!"

I cannot imagine the horror at that four-story house on Woodycrest Avenue in the Bronx Wednesday night when it went up in flames – possibily because of the misuse of an obviously much-needed space heater – and forced grownups to make split decisions about how to save the lives of as many of their family members as possible, including about a dozen children.

In the end, eight children, some as young as seven months old, perished. God bless their souls. But others survived because one of the adults tossed them out of a third-floor window of the house to Good Samaritans on the ground.

If somehow you have missed this story, catch up with The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/nyregion/index.html

Also: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bronx-Fire.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
("Mosques Comfort Survivors of NYC Fire")

… and with one of the local NYC television stations:

www.wnbc.com
www.wabc.com
www.wcbstv.com
www.ny1news.com


So far, there is no really solid information on how to help the family – this was an extended immigrant family from Mali, in West Africa. But they obviously need everything from diapers to dollars. When I learn more, I will post more.

But be vigilant yourselves. When we switch to Day Light Savings Time Saturday night/Sunday morning, have fresh batteries installed in your smoke detectors. And work out family evacuation plans in case of fire. More importantly, I suppose: Know fire safety rules. Talk to your neighborhood firefighters.