Fires before and during pesach

AweSumThenSum ↓

Tue, Apr 26 2005, 5:35 pm

I'm from new york, and I dont know if a/o here heard, but there have been a slew of fires and terrible tradgedies right before and on yom tov.
before yom tov, a 10 year old boy was killed in monsey when he lost control of his bike and flew head-on into traffic. earlier that same day and 3 year old lost his life in monsey too.
on pesach, 3 boys from williamsburgh lost their lives in a horrible fire, and several families became homeless in mount kisco when fire ravaged their attached homes.

is g-d trying to tell us something? isn't fire symbolic of machlokes? perhaps g-d is trying to tell us that we need to become more united!! when g-d took us out of mitzrayim, He made us His chosen nation, ONE PEOPLE!!! perhaps it's time we found that ONENESS again. let's try to be friendlier and less judgmental to all jews, regardless of their station in life!!!

↑ Motek ↓

Wed, Apr 27 2005, 11:22 am

Fire victims' last gift to mom

BY NANCY DILLON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, April 27th, 2005

The Brooklyn brothers who perished in a Passover fire had saved up all their pocket money to buy their parents a set of holiday dinner plates, relatives said yesterday.
The teens gave their mother the loving gift in time for the first holiday Seder - the day before they died along with their nephew when a fire ripped through their Williamsburg apartment.

After firefighters carried Shyia Matyas, 16, and his brother Yidel, 13, out of their home early Monday, their heartbroken mom bent over their bodies and thanked them for the poignant gift.

"She was talking to the boys at the funeral home, saying, 'Thank you, thank you. You did so well,'" Ana Weiss, 56, said of her sister Rachel Matyas. "They are shattered to pieces, emotionally, physically."

The boys and their nephew, Israel Falkowitz, 7, had been dancing happily long after midnight at a family party the morning they died in the Bedford Gardens apartment complex.

Weiss said she now believes the boys did not want to go to bed because they had a premonition of their impending doom.

"They just didn't want it to end, as if they felt something," she said.

Israel's paternal grandmother remembered him as a "very loving" boy.

"He was everybody's favorite," Rifka Falkowitz said. "He was a really special child. Smart, clever, sweet, charming."

The three boys died of smoke inhalation after the family left their kitchen stove on for days in accordance with Jewish holiday tradition. Relatives insisted that a neighbor's home health aide turned off the gas burners about 2 a.m. on Monday.

Rachal Matyas woke up smelling burning rubber about 4 a.m., but went back to sleep after she couldn't find what was causing the smell, relatives said.

FDNY officials said even if the stove was switched off it was hot enough from being on continuously to ignite wood paneling in the kitchen at 6 a.m.

Community activists blasted the FDNY for what they called a slow response to the fire and criticized the apartment complex for chaining shut an entrance.

Community leader Isaac Abraham said the response time of 31/2 minutes was too long because the firehouse is just steps away from the complex.

The FDNY said the response time was appropriate, and noted that it took just nine minutes from the first 911 call for the Bravest to get to one of the lifeless boys.

http://www.nypost.com/commentary/45486.htm

↑ Motek ↓

Wed, Apr 27 2005, 11:25 am

Quote:

several families became homeless in mount kisco when fire ravaged their attached homes.

this news account sounds different than that:

Blaze destroys yeshiva building

By BRIAN J. HOWARD
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: April 24, 2005)

As many as 150 firefighters from Mount Kisco and surrounding departments spent half a day battling a blaze at a New Castle yeshiva yesterday, only to return hours later after remnants of the fire flared up again.

No residents or firefighters were injured in the 2:10 a.m. fire at Yeshiva Farms Settlement School off Pines Bridge Road. However, a large two-story structure on the multi-acre compound was completely leveled. As firefighters sprayed the building's charred remains, only a tall brick fireplace at the far end of the building was left standing.

Mount Kisco Assistant Fire Chief Richard Hardy said the structure was a residence that also was used for storage and food preparation.

"The biggest problem we had was all this caving in," Hardy said, gesturing to the wreckage around 6:45 last night, nearly two hours after returning to the scene. "We couldn't pull (the building's contents) out. We soaked it the best we could. Hopefully, we won't have to come back again."

The fire comes at a particularly significant time for the Hasidic enclave, where the property overlooks the New Croton Reservoir. Passover began at sundown yesterday. Dozens of residents watched as firefighters tended to the scene, but they declined to comment on the fire.

Departments from Millwood, Bedford Hills, Armonk, Katonah and Yorktown assisted in battling the blaze, while Ossining, Chappaqua and Goldens Bridge were on standby.

Hardy said the balloon construction of the building and the significant amount of materials inside made the fire difficult to fight. Given those factors, he added, the time it took to fight the fire and the fact that it flared up again weren't surprising.

There was little hope of saving the building, though.

"When you come on the scene and it's fully involved like this, you're fighting an uphill battle," said Hardy.

The fact that no one was hurt in the blaze was of some satisfaction to firefighters and residents.

"When we pulled up, that was our first question," third Assistant Chief Michael Boles said. "Is everyone out? Is everyone safe?"

The Westchester County Cause and Origin Team ruled the fire accidental, but the cause remains undetermined.

↑ Motek ↓

Wed, Apr 27 2005, 11:28 am

Quote:

before yom tov, a 10 year old boy was killed in monsey when he lost control of his bike and flew head-on into traffic.

Boy killed by car

By CATHERINE L. FOLEY
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: April 22, 2005)

RAMAPO — A 10-year-old Monsey boy riding his bicycle on Viola Road died yesterday after he was hit by a car, town police said.
Pesach Weinstein was struck by a car driven by Frantz Stivil, 41, of Spring Valley. The gray 1986 BMW was headed westbound near the intersection with Route 306 around 6:29 p.m., as the sun was setting, police said.

A passing physician stopped to administer CPR before the boy was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern by Hatzolah Ambulance Corps, Capt. Steve Kaye of the Spring Hill Community Ambulance Corps said. Rockland Paramedic Services also responded.

Pesach was pronounced dead on arrival, police Lt. Leslie Lampert said. Police did not provide the boy's address or the names of his parents.

Spring Hill Ambulance Corps took Stivil to Good Samaritan Hospital, where he was treated for shock, Kaye said.

The boy's black yarmulke and watch lay on the blood-stained road, several feet away from his helmet and about 10 feet away from his black bike. Medical supplies were scattered on the ground nearby.

The BMW was parked on the shoulder. There was a deep dent on the front bumper and hood.

The boy had no identification, and after police made several telephone calls, a woman and another boy arrived at 7:45 p.m. and approached the bike.

The boy told police he recognized the bicycle.

Police took the woman aside to speak with her, and she screamed, "No!"

Five minutes later, a man sped to the scene, honking the horn of his Volvo and yelling, "It was my kid! My wife just told me."

lucky

Mon, May 02 2005, 2:36 am

I've just heard there was another fire, this time in New Square. more families are left without homes. It is a very traumatic thing to go through, watching your house burn... But it pales in the light of the deadly fire in Williamsburg. Material things can be replaced, But the family that lost 3 kids, Hashem should give them the strength to go on. One daughter, a kallah was injured when jumping from the window, she is still in the hospital and needs more surgery. I have personaly spoken to someone who was at that seder and she said that never ever before did the father sing and dance with his sons like he did that seder. A persons neshama feels that the end is near.
It is unbelievable.

↑ Motek

Wed, May 04 2005, 8:01 am

By NANCY CUTLER
ncutler@thejournalnews.com
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: May 2, 2005)

A fire yesterday, on the last day of Passover, burned three New Square families out of their homes and left two firefighters and two Ramapo police officers slightly injured.

No one was home at 4 Wilson Ave. at the time of the fire, but initial reports that residents were trapped sent police and firefighters to search the burning building.

Flames from the first floor were licking at the eaves of the three-story home by the time firefighters arrived at the 11:28 a.m. fire, said 1st Assistant Chief Chris Kear of the Hillcrest Fire Department.

The fire melted the vinyl siding of homes on either side. The next house, 6-8 Wilson, which was about 10 feet away, was checked inside to make sure no fire had ignited, Kear said.

Aron Kaff, a member of Hatzoloh Ambulance Corps, lives nearby.

"I hear screaming on the streets, saw fire ... everybody's screaming that one guy was still in the house," Kaff said. The fire was so hot, Kaff couldn't enter the front of the building, he said. "I lay on the ground screaming the man's name."

When police arrived, Kaff said, he told them one man could be inside.

"The officers came with heart," Kaff said. "I couldn't believe it. They took a side door to try and find the guy."

When a search by police and then firefighters kept turning up nothing, Kaff had someone check the man's synagogue. He was quickly located there.

During the search, two police officers, Denise Dougherty and Christopher Franklin, suffered smoke inhalation, police said. Dougherty was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital by Spring Hill Ambulance Corps, where she was released after treatment; Franklin was treated at the fire scene by Hatzoloh Ambulance Corps members.

Two firefighters were also injured. Briones Perionnes of the Spring Valley department was apparently injured when his leg went through the floor, and Seth Conklin of the Hillcrest department hurt his shoulder when he pulled Perionnes out, Ramapo police said.

The home is owned by Joel and Chaya Fischl, police said. Families were staying with relatives in New Square, Kaff said.

Community members were concerned about old religious books in the house valued at thousands of dollars, Kear said, and firefighters safely retrieved them.

The books are handwritten texts of religious interpretation, brought with families from Europe, Kaff said last night.

Kear said the wood-frame house was 60 feet long and 50 feet deep. The fire appeared to have started on the lowest level, to the left of two sets of stairs at the center of the house, he said.

Once firefighters were sure no one was in building, they continued to attack the fire from the inside for three or four minutes more and realized the fire was too strong and it was too risky.

"We just couldn't get ahead of the fire," Kear said. They then worked on the fire from the outside with hoses and ladder trucks.

Kear said firefighters had believed the building contained all residential units, but there was a printing business on the right side.

"We are anticipating an apartment, with a certain layout. Now we're going into an area where that's all changed," Kear said. "Now it's a printing business ... is there flammable ink, products, paper?"

The Rockland County Sheriff's Bureau of Criminal Investigation was investigating, and Kear expected to hear some findings today.

The timing of the blaze, on the final day of Passover, was not good, Kaff said, but the timing turned out to be fortuitous. "Lucky it didn't happen in the middle of the night."