Parents and five daughters die in Brooklyn blaze

Five young daughters and their parents were killed in New York yesterday when a grease fire swept through their apartment from the kitchen below.

The woman who accidentally started the blaze - a close family friend - said she screamed up the stairs to alert them to the danger.

‘‘I was screaming and screaming and nobody ever answered me,’’ said a distraught Muzahmel Khanaja. ‘‘I thought nobody was home, so I ran out.

‘‘They usually hear me when I call to them. We are like family,’’ she said, sobbing uncontrollably.

Fire officials said Khanaja unwittingly left her door open when she fled the three-storey Brooklyn building - which sent the fire roaring into the hallway and up the stairs, trapping her friends.

The dead were identified as Mohammed Nadeem, 44; his wife, Yasemine, 30, and their daughters Ateka, 13, Romesa, 11, Bisma, five, Nirna, three, and Zanneb, nine months.

Firefighters found five bodies huddled together in a bedroom. A sixth body was found in another room, amid debris from the collapsed roof.

The seventh body, that of the baby, was found in Khanaja’s apartment - where it had fallen when part of the floor caved in during the fire.

Khanaja said she was heating oil to cook chicken when the fire started.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who visited the scene, blamed the deaths on ‘‘carelessness’’.

He said Khanaja ‘‘instead of calling 911 right away, tried to put out the fire herself. That wasted valuable time.’’

Fire officials said if Khanaja had closed her apartment door, the fire could have been contained and her neighbours very likely could have been saved.

Firefighters were there within four minutes of the blaze being reported, but there was little they could do, officials said.

‘‘They were a beautiful family,’’ said a neighbour. ‘‘It is just a horrible accident.’’

Fire officials said the building did not appear to have smoke detectors or sprinklers. They said they believe the victims died of smoke inhalation.

Twelve firemen, three policemen, one ambulance worker and two passers-by were treated for minor injuries.