Mayor visits scene of blaze that kills seven children; Mother and child in hospital

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio described a fire that killed seven children in Brooklyn as an “unbelievable tragedy”.

The mayor visited the scene of the fire a few hours after the blaze took the lives of the children, aged five to 15. It also critically injured their mother and another child from the same Orthodox Jewish family.

The mayor and his fire commissioner went through the charred residence where the children were found dead on the second floor. Afterwards, a sombre Mr de Blasio said the loss was being felt by all New Yorkers.

Fire investigators believe a warming plate in the first-floor kitchen ignited the fire shortly after midnight. They say the mother and her teenage daughter survived by jumping from the second floor.

Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the hot plate was left on for the Sabbath. Many religious Jews do not use electricity on the Sabbath but leave appliances on so they may be used.

More than 100 firefighters battled the blaze and brought it under control at around 1.30am, about an hour after it was reported.

Neighbour Nate Weber said he saw children being wheeled away on stretchers. “I just turned away. I didn’t even want to look,” he said.

He told the New York Daily News he heard the children’s mother yelling for someone to rescue her children after she jumped from a window.

“I heard a woman yelling: ’My kids are in there. Get them out! Get them out!”’ he said.