A tragic fire in an apartment complex located in the Bronx claimed the lives of two young girls Wednesday night. The two kids, 2-year-old Jannubi Jabie and her 18-month-old sister Amanda, were alone in the apartment when the blaze started.
The kids' mother left them alone for a bit in order to wash clothes at a laundromat across the street. Robert Rivera, who witnessed the incident, described how the kids' mother rushed out of the laundromat and screamed.
"My kids! My kids are up there!," the mother yelled as the windows to her apartment were engulfed in flames.
Firefighters who responded to the scene reportedly allowed the woman to enter the burning building. Despite the firefighters' best efforts, the two children were already badly burnt by the time they were retrieved from the inferno.
Kay Wilkins, a fellow resident of the building, stated that after the kids' mother entered the apartment, firefighters soon emerged cradling two toddlers in their arms. The rescuers then placed the little kids on a stretcher.
"That hurt me to witness. This is my building. This is my home. I've never seen a fire like this. I couldn't even speak," she said.
Another witness, Adrian Dozier, described the condition of the kids as they were taken out of the building.
"The flames were coming out of the bedroom window. They brought two kids out. They were badly burned. Their faces and hands were disfigured. One was so badly burned I couldn't recognize him, so you couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl," Dozer said.
The mother reportedly collapsed after seeing her children. She was also taken to a local hospital.
Rescuers immediately took the children to the nearby Bronx Lebanon Hospital. Despite their best efforts, the children were soon pronounced dead.
The deadly blaze broke out at the third floor of the 21-story, NYCHA-run tower on Webster Ave. near E. 170th St. at about 6:30 p.m. local time. Overall, the fiery blaze claimed the lives of the two girls and injured 10 people, two of them being firefighters. The injuries of the 10, however, were not considered life-threatening.
Investigators are currently looking into the possible causes of the fire.