Bronx community grieves as fire victims laid to rest
NEW YORK – A Bronx community gathered Sunday to pay its final respects to perished loved ones, a week after a fire filled a high-rise apartment building with thick, suffocating smoke that killed 17 people, including eight children.
The mass funeral capped a week of prayers and mourning within a closeknit community hailing from West Africa, most with connections to the tiny country of Gambia.
Amid the mourning, there was also frustration and anger as family, friends and neighbors of the dead tried to make sense of the tragedy.
“This is a sad situation. But everything comes from God. Tragedies always happen, we just thank Allah that we can all come together,” said Haji Dukuray, the uncle of Haja Dukuray, who died with three of her children and her husband.
The dead ranged in age from 2 to 50. Entire families were killed, including a family of five. Others would leave behind orphaned children.
There were 15 caskets in all that lined the front of the prayer hall. They ranged in size – some no bigger than small coffee tables, containing the bodies of the youngest souls who died.
“One week they were with us … now they’re gone,” said Musa Kabba, imam at the Masjid-ur-rahmah mosque, where many of the deceased had prayed.
Last week, burial services were held for two children at a mosque in Harlem.
After Sunday’s services in New York City, 11 caskets were to be transported to a cemetery in New Jersey for burial. Four of the victims were expected to be repatriated to Gambia, as requested by their families, a Gambian government official attending the service said.
All week, family members had been anxious to lay their loved ones to rest to honor Islamic tradition, which calls for burial as soon after death as possible. But complications over identifying the victims delayed their release to funeral
homes.
The funeral was held at the Islamic Cultural Center, 2 miles from the 19story apartment building where New York City’s deadliest fire in three decades unfolded.
Parts of the service was delivered in Soninke, a language spoken in Gambia and other parts of West Africa.
Hundreds filled the mosque and many hundreds more filled tents outside or huddled in the cold to pay their respects. The services were beamed onto jumbo screens outside and in other rooms of the mosque.
Because of the magnitude of the tragedy, funeral organizers insisted on a public funeral to bring attention to the plight of immigrant families across New York City.
“There’s outcry. There’s injustice. There’s neglect,” said Sheikh Musa Drammeh, who was among those leading the response to the tragedy.
Officials blamed a faulty space heater in a third-floor apartment for the blaze, which spewed plumes of suffocating smoke that quickly rose through the stairwell of the 19-story building.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin and two officials representing the Gambian government attended the services.