Father of 7 children who died in NY fire: 'They were so pure'
Father delivers tearful eulogy as 1,000 people arrive to pay respects to victims of fire started by hotplate.
The grieving man, Gabriel Sassoon, spoke at a packed funeral chapel where white curtains separated hundreds of men wearing black hats and yarmulkes from women in modest dress.
His eulogy for the seven children, ages 5 to 16, was broadcast to an even bigger crowd outside. Many of the mourners rocked back and forth in reverence as he spoke. "My children, they were so pure," he said.
The children's grief-stricken father broke down in tears during his eulogy. “They all had faces of angels. Hashem (God) knows how much I love them,” Sassoon said, according to local media outlets.
“People forget what’s important in life,” said Sassoon. “My kids were the best, but really, every child is the best and most beautiful child in the world.”
New York newspapers described a heart wrenching scene as the father began sobbing while reciting the children's names. “Too many names. They are seven complete pure sheep. There’s nothing else to say."
About 1,000 mourners arrived for the service, said the New York Post.
Around the corner from the home where only the mother and one of her eight children survived the early Saturday blaze, the Fire Department of New York handed out pamphlets titled "Fire Safety for Jewish Observances" as well as smoke alarms and batteries.
The fire department blamed a malfunctioning electric hotplate for the fire that raced through the home at around 12:30 AM on Saturday, killing the children, ages 5 to 16. The blaze critically injured their 15-year-old sister, Siporah, and mother, Gayle Sassoon, 45. The father was at a religious conference when the fire broke out.
Crowd-control barricades were set up outside the Shomrei Hadas Chapels in Brooklyn, where a rabbi led for the children, laid out in seven coffins in front of men and women, sitting on separate sides of the room. After the service, the children's bodies were to be flown to Israel for burial, the funeral home said.
Jewish rules in observance of the Sabbath day of rest, which lasts from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, prohibit turning on and off electric appliances and prohibit all other forms of what is considered work, said state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents the heavily Jewish district.
"A lot of people use these hotplates to keep food warm for the next day," Hikind said. "They put them on on Friday and they are left on for the entire Sabbath, 25 hours."
An online version of the FDNY pamphlet about dangers during the Sabbath and Jewish holidays tops the list with the warning: "Stay in the kitchen - don't leave cooking food unattended."
Hikind said he uses a water-filled urn that he heats up before the Sabbath starts at sundown every Friday night. "I called my own daughter, who has six kids, to tell her to stop using that hot plate," he said.
It was the city's fourth deadly fire in 15 years sparked by hotplates or use of ritual candles, according to the Jewish Forward newspaper, including a 2000 fire in Williamsburg that killed the granddaughter of the Satmar Grand Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum and her 5-month old baby.
Hikind said that scam artists immediately launched a phony fundraising scheme in the Sassoon family's name, and he warned followers on Twitter not to contribute.
"People's heart aches - Jew and non-Jew alike. They want to help. We don't want you to waste your money," he later told Reuters.
Although smoke alarms are required on every floor of a home, according to a fire department spokesman, the New York Times reported the Sassoon home only had a smoke alarm in basement.
The fire department did not immediately respond to questions about the home's smoke alarms or about previous deadly fires tied to religious observances.
