Brooklyn, NY – The frum community in New York and worldwide is reeling following the devastating fire that claimed the lives of seven neshamos at 3371 Bedford Avenue, near Avenue L, in Flatbush.
Just after midnight, flames began to fly off the large hot plate on a first-floor kitchen counter. The fire smoldered in the kitchen unnoticed. As soon as the fire reached the stairwell, it shot upstairs, feeding off wood inside the home.
Four children in two bedrooms in the back of the house were confined to their rooms as thick smoke filled the area. Three more children were stuck in a front bedroom.
The niftarim were Elaine Sassoon, 16, Rivkah Sassoon, 11, Sarah Sassoon, 6, Dovid Sassoon, 12, Yehoshua Sassoon, 10, Moshe Sassoon, 8, and Yaakov Sassoon, 5.
The mother of the children, 45-year-old Mrs. Gayle Sassoon, and her 14-year-old daughter, Tzipora, survived.
Mrs. Sassoon was separated from her children by the flames, and, after leaping from the second floor, she stumbled through the smoke to the steps of her cousin Gary Jemal’s house across the street. There, a neighbor and friend of Mrs. Sassoon, Victor Sedaka, found her “black, charred,” he said. “You couldn’t even tell who she was.”
The second-oldest child, Tziporah, also jumped from a window.
Flames shot 15 feet out of windows on both sides of the house. Mr. Sedaka and other neighbors awoke to the sound of screams. About 15 firefighters, with hoses blasting, charged inside.
Mrs. Sassoon was taken to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, which has a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for burn victims. Tziporah was taken to Staten Island University Hospital North.
Mrs. Sassoon is a native of Midwood, Brooklyn, where she grew up. She later moved to Israel, where the Sassoons met and married. The family moved to Brooklyn from Eretz Yisroel about two years ago.
The Sassoon home was said to be at least 90 years old.
The family davened at the nearby Congregation Keter Torah. Some of the children attend Yeshivat Ateret Torah.
{Gavriel Sitrit-Matzav.com Newscenter}
BDE
When a tragedy like this strikes the world everyone is asking what is the message from Hashem?. The RAMCHAL in Sefer Derech Hashem quotes, when klal yisroel is in a state of Sinning RL, suffering & pain may be imposed upon a tzaddik or sinless Children as an atonement for his entire generation.
On March 11 2011, Friday night of Parshas Vayikra. a horrific tragedy hit klal yisroel. The entire vogel family-parents & 3 children-were killed in a home terrorist attack during the night. Exactly 4 years later on Friday night of Parshas Vayikra March 20 2015, the Sasoon family of Flatbush was hit by a major Shabbos fire while the family was asleep killing 7 young children. (between the ages of 5 & 16) What is the message from Hashem? Both tragedies-above-occured on the parsha of Korbanos (sacrifices). When we dont serve Hashem as we should & do teshuva, then innocent sinless children or Righteous people are taken from us as a replacement for the sins that we need to do teshuva on.
may mashiach come very soon
Perhaps that is the very message.
Does anybody think they will bring Korbonos in Flatbush ? Lakewood? Monsey?
Even if we can’t build the Bais Hamikdash just yet, perhaps if we show Hashem that we want to come Home to him i.e. to dwell in his palace, then he will come home to us…..