Scores of Mourners Overflow Mosque for Emotional Funeral for 15 Victims of Deadly Bronx Fire
By Brittany Kriegstein, Emma Seiwell and Shant Shahrigian
New York: Tears and demands for justice pervaded Sunday’s funeral services for 15 of the people killed in last week’s horrific Bronx apartment building fire — the deadliest blaze in the city in three decades.
A crowd estimated at more than 2,000 paid final respects to nine adults and six children who perished after a faulty space heater caused an inferno in a high-rise January 9. Funerals for two of the youngest victims — Seydou Toure, 12, and his sister Haouwa Mahamadou, 5 — were held Wednesday.
Attendees Sunday included a mix of people who knew the victims — members mostly of a tight-knit Gambian community — and strangers moved to tears by the tragedy.
Isatou Jallow, 38, stood outside the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx as the caskets were taken inside one by one.
“I’m very emotional, and I wish something was done,” said Jallow, who described herself as a friend of the Drammeh family, which lost four family members in the fire. “I wish I can turn back the hands of time. With what’s happened today, this is a lesson, this is to learn.”
Fatoumata Drammeh, 50, was among those mourned Sunday. She died alongside daughters Fatoumala and Aisha, 21 and 19, respectively, and son Muhammed, 12.
Hundreds of attendees who couldn’t fit inside the mosque watched a livestream of the somber proceedings from a tent set up outside on East 166th Street. Mourners dried their tears beneath their masks, occasionally joining in prayer or murmuring in agreement with speakers.
Yunus Diallo, 23, trekked from Brooklyn to attend the ceremony.
“I didn’t know anyone — but they are Muslims and we are Muslims,” he said.
“We still came all the way because we felt their pain,” Diallo added. “They are Muslim brothers and sisters, so for every Muslim, wherever they are, wherever they die, if we can, we’re going to go over there and pray on the dead bodies.”
Speakers including numerous elected officials and religious leaders who denounced conditions leading up to the fire.
“These funeral caskets are here because they lived in the Bronx,” said Sheik Musa Drammeh. “We are here because we lived in the Bronx. People are dying because they lived in the Bronx.”
An entire family was among those who perished in the tragedy: patriarch Haji Dukuray, 49, and his wife Haja, 37, along with Mustapha, 12, Miriam, 11, and Fatoumata, 5.
Lt Gov Brian Benjamin promised a $2 million victims’ compensation fund from the state. That comes after the city announced $2,250 in emergency financial aid for every household at the Twin Parks North West building, where residents have been reluctant to return.
“What is happening here in the Bronx, it is what is happening here across our city in communities where Black, brown and immigrant people are,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the funeral. “It’s time to end those inequalities so we don’t have our babies and our families torn apart.”
After a faulty space heater started last week’s blaze, smoke spread when two building doors that were supposed to automatically close failed to do so, according to officials. Ousmane Konteh, the youngest victim, was just 2 years old.
Hagi Jawara, 47, and his wife Isatou Jabbie, 31, were among those who succumbed to choking smoke in an 18th floor stairwell. Janneh, 27, died after making it as far as the fourth floor. Fatoumata Tunkara, 43, died with her little boy Omar Jambang, 6.
Attorney General Letitia James, who previously promised to investigate the fire, called for justice Sunday for those who died.
“There were conditions in that building that should have been corrected. There were conditions in that building that should have been inspected,” she said. “There were funds that were rewarded to individuals that should have gone to rehabilitation and to correct those conditions.
“We’ll use the law both as a sword and a shield to protect you,” James promised mourners.
A clerk for the mosque estimated at least 2,000 people showed up. Organizers struggled at times to handle the overflow crowds.
“It was overloaded and so many people were there, but overall, it was good,” said Bakary Camara, a spokesperson for the Islamic Center.
During the ceremony, a woman was seen being carried out of the building by NYPD Community Affairs officers. Police did not immediately provide details beyond stating that two civilians were transported from the mosque to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital after apparently becoming overcome.
While some building residents told the Daily News their apartments were often hot, prompting them to crack windows in the winter, others said some apartments were chronically chilly.
The building resident whose apartment first caught fire acknowledged to The News on Wednesday that there were three space heaters in his home, one in each of the bedrooms which he said needed the supplemental heat. Mamadou Wague, 47, said his 4-year-old daughter remained at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell with burns from the blaze.
“Everyone was sleeping,” Wague said of the start of the blaze. “My kids ran screaming ‘Daddy, Daddy, there’s a fire,’” he recalled. “I ran in, and there was fire everywhere. I did everything to get my family out.”
Jallow, the friend of the Drammeh family, voiced indignation Sunday over last week’s losses.
“We won’t take it light,” she said. “The building should have enough heat. The people that live in that community, they are not animals; they are human. So, I think something has to be done as soon as possible.
“They are traumatized,” Jallow said of the survivors. “Things will never be the same again.” - Courtesy, New York Daily News (With John Annese.)
