4 members of same family among 12 dead in Bronx fire
Clockwise, Shawntay Young, 19, Kylie Francis, 2, Charmela Francis, 7, Karen Stewart Francis, 37, were four of the victims of the Bronx apartment building fire that killed at least 12, family member Elaine Williams said. Credit: Shevon Stewart
Children, babies and the mothers and grandmothers who cared for them are among a dozen people who perished in a Bronx fire Thursday that will go down in history as one of New York City’s deadliest.
As their identities slowly became available Friday, stunned relatives of the victims and community residents returned to the area near 2363 Prospect Ave., where the blaze took the lives of infants, toddlers, young adults and seniors as it tore through their building in the Belmont section of the borough.
Friends and family had identified four victims who died as members of the same family: Karen Stewart Francis, 37; her children, Charmela Francis, 7, and Kylie Francis, 2; and her niece, Shawntay Young, 19.
“My daughter, my sister, and my two nieces — dead.” said Elaine Williams at the scene Friday.
The fast-moving fire also injured four people and displaced at least 25 families. Survivors were forced out into the bitter cold — temperatures had dipped to the teens — with almost nothing in their hands or on their feet and backs, all unsure about the fate of their neighbors.
“I was naked, I was shocked,” said Esther Sakiy, 50, a 10-year resident of the building who was resting in the bedroom of her fourth-floor apartment when she heard a commotion, cracked open the front door and saw a hallway engulfed in smoke.
She raced down the fire escape so quickly that she didn’t have time to put on clothes.
“I’m not going to die,” the Mount Sinai Hospital patient care assistant said she told herself. “God, get me out of this.”
Sakiy spoke as she boarded a Red Cross bus, wearing clothes she received through a donation that day after she had climbed down the fire escape, cutting her leg so badly that it required stitches.
Through it all, she said, she was determined to live despite the terror she felt.
Some of the dead have not been identified, including a boy and four men.
Others left loved ones in deep mourning.
Fernando Batiz, 54, of the Bronx, learned at 6 a.m. Friday that his sister, Maria Batiz, 58, died while baby-sitting her granddaughter, who also perished.
He said that as she was trapped in the apartment Thursday night, Maria called her daughter, Cristine, 26, the baby’s mother, with a horrifying declaration: They were “not going to make it.”
Batiz on Friday said his sister died protecting the granddaughter she cherished.
“She loved that baby a lot,” he said about his sister’s devotion to her granddaughter. Maria Batiz was a home health aide.
Her daughter, Cristine, was not home during the fire and stayed in a shelter Thursday night, he said.
She was among the dozens of residents who were still unable to return to their charred home Friday afternoon to collect their belongings and begin to get their lives back on track because authorities had not yet declared the scene safe.
Some boarded a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus to register with the Red Cross to stay in temporary shelters. Members of the community offered assistance — coming to the area with coats and other clothing.
Resident Matthew Igbinedion walked near the scene with a Red Cross blanket wrapped around his shoulders. The 48-year-old was trying to return to his second-floor apartment to get some clothes and identification.
“I haven’t had a coat since yesterday,” he said. “They won’t let me in. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do without a coat or my ID.”
He spent the night in a Brooklyn hotel courtesy of the Red Cross, he said.
Javier Negron, a longtime Bronx resident who works as a school aide supervisor for the city Department of Education, carried a black athletic bag filled with coats, jackets and sneakers hoping to give them new owners.
He said the news of the fire “broke my heart, especially since it happened this time of the year. With all the chaos in the world, I decided I could help. I grabbed things I no longer use and brought them here. This could be me, this could be you. It could be anyone.
“I don’t have much but I’m happy to share it. It feels good to be able to help,” he said.
Isabel Toro, who lives near the fire scene on East 185th Street, and her daughter Awilda Toro, were pushing shopping carts full of blankets, coats, hats and gloves to donate to displaced victims. They tried to give them to Red Cross workers, but the workers said they couldn’t take it and told them to go to a local church or the Salvation Army.
“I wanted to help the people,” said Toro, a social worker and teacher. “This could happen to anybody. It could happen to us.”
This story was reported by Zachary R. Dowdy, Candice Ferrette, Mark Morales and Michael O’Keeffe. It was written by Ferrette.
Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.
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