CHANUKAH HORROR
Mom, 3 kids die in fire blamed on menorah B’klyn dad saves 2 others, is badly burned
A BROOKLYN family who had been celebrating the sixth night of Chanukah awoke to a hellish inferno Monday morning that killed the mother and three of her children.
Aliza Azan (second from left), her 3-year-old daughter, Henrietta (right), and two sons — Yitzah (bottom), 7, and Moshe (center), 11, perished. Dad Yosi Azan (top center) suffered severe burns during rescue effort.
A BROOKLYN mother and three of her children who had gone to bed after celebrating the sixth night of Chanukah died early Monday when a fast-moving blaze — likely started by their menorah — swept through their home, fire officials said.
The four family members were trapped in the bedrooms of their Sheepshead Bay house by a roaring inferno as the husband and father of the victims desperately tried to rescue them.
Despite his heroics, Yosi Azan, 45, was unable to save his loved ones. He was badly burned and clinging to life Monday.
Two of his other children also suffered critical injuries. Another son and a cousin were taken to the hospital in stable condition.
“Tragedy strikes at this time of year, and as I’ve said before, this time of year makes it that much sadder,” FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. “Four people died here, a mom and three children. The father, who acted very courageously, got two teenagers out safely.”
Later, a sea of mourners filled the street in front of Shevet Achim, the Brooklyn synagogue along Avenue T where a funeral service was planned.
Sobs and prayers filled the street, as did a wall of people so thick that the immediate family could not exit their vehicles.
Family members said a short prayer and skipped the formalities so they could depart on a midnight flight to bring the bodies to Israel to be buried.
“We know them very well . . . . Our community couldn’t even work here today. We walked around like zombies,” said family friend and neighbor Alan Sokol.
Firefighters arriving about 2 a.m. fought bravely to smother the flames, but only reached the victims after the blaze was extinguished. They found the bodies of the mother, Aliza Azan, 40, and her 3-year-old daughter, Henrietta, together in a bedroom on the second floor. Two sons — Yitzah, 7, and Moshe, 11 — were found together in another bedroom on the floor.
Neighbors said that on each night of Chanukah, the father, mother and their six children used oil to light a large menorah in a living room window that faced the street.
Nigro said the FDNY didn’t know what started the fire but the menorah was a “possibility.”
An FDNY source also said, “We have reason to believe it was the menorah.” There was a working smoke detector in the home, the source said.
The fire initially tore through the ground floor before climbing the stairs to the home’s second floor and attic.
Nigro praised Yosi Azan, saying the dad helped two teenage children get out of the house, then returned to the inferno to try to save his wife and other kids.
“We believe he acted very courageously and tried desperately,” Nigro said. “Hopefully, it didn’t cost him his life also.”
The father was unable to speak and on a respirator at Staten Island University Hospital, where family and friends had gathered to pray.
“He opened his eyes and recognized his cousin. So hopefully he’ll get better. He’s unable to speak, because he has a tube in his mouth,” family friend Pini Shaool, 46, said.
“His breathing is difficult. It’s more than just burning.”
One of Azan’s sons and a cousin who had been sleeping on the first floor suffered only minor injuries. Another child broke his pelvis while jumping from a window, officials said.
Azan’s 16-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son remained hospitalized with serious injuries, according to Jack Meyer, the founder of Missaskim, a Jewish burial group. A 13-year-old son had been released from the hospital, Meyer said.
The Azans moved from Ocean Parkway to the single-family home on E. 14th St. near Avenue S about eight months ago.
“They’re a very good family. They’re religious. They’re very nice people,” a family friend said.
Community insiders said Aliza Azan’s father, Ibrahim al-Hamra, was the former chief rabbi of Syria who moved to Israel more than a decade ago. Her brother is a leader of the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn.
Yosi Azan worked for years at the Hat Box, a Coney Island shop where he steamed and mended expensive black felt headpieces worn by members of the Orthodox community.
“It took very aggressive action by the firefighters knowing that there were people inside to pull their hose lines in to make their searches,” Nigro said.
The fire recalled a similar blaze in 2015 in which Brooklyn parents Gabriel and Gayle Sassoon lost seven of their children.
After that tragedy, Yosi at the time posted on Facebook that three of their kids studied with his children.
“This is something I can’t understand,” he wrote.