Girl dies in B’klyn blaze
Had just called mom
An 11-year-old girl was killed when a fire tore through her Brooklyn home late Monday — minutes after she got off the phone with her mother, the distraught parent told The Post Tuesday.
Firefighters responded to a blaze at a house at Ocean Parkway and Foster Avenue in Kensington at about 10 p.m., finding the home engulfed in flames and young Shir Tevet (inset) unconscious inside.
The girl was transported to Maimonides Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Authorities said it appeared she died from smoke inhalation.
“I really don’t know what happened,” grieving mother Limor Tevet-Steinmetz told The Post in a tearful interview.
“We went to the store for 20 minutes. She called back and asked to get her ice cream. That’s the last thing I heard from her.
“My daughter was exceptional, she was remarkable, one of a kind,” she sobbed. “She was my everything. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.”
Shir’s neighbor and teacher at Yeshiva Ohel Moshe in Bensonhurst, Madelyn Novitsky, said the mother called her in a state of panic amid the blaze.
“She called me at around 11 and said, ‘Have you seen my daughter,’ ” Novitsky said. “But she wasn’t coherent. She wanted to know if her daughter is OK. I said I have no idea.”
Tevet-Steinmetz told The Post the girl was home alone and in her bedroom when the fire broke out and said firefighters could not get to her.
“They got into the living room, but they didn’t check on my daughter in her room because the flames were too much,” she said. “She was asleep in her bed, and they couldn’t get to her.”
Fire officials could not confirm Tuesday where the girl was when firefighters discovered her body.
The fire was not believed to be suspicious.
Police said there was no history of domestic abuse or child-protection involvement with the family.
The city’s Administration for Children’s Services said Tuesday that it is investigating the incident.
The girl’s father said the family was scheduled to leave the country Tuesday to bury her in Israel.