The day after a devastating house fire claimed the lives of five people, including two children, the Spring Valley community lit candles and prayed for the victims taken in the overnight inferno.
Family and friends mourned Sunday at a growing memorial outside the home where a 4 a.m. fire took the five victims, all believed to be from the same family, and injured another five people.
Prayers were said in Spanish at the gathering on South Lake Street for the victims, all of them immigrants from Guatemala. The youngest of Saturday's victims was just 4 years old, according to family.
Local police and fire department crews raced to the home but found the fire already engulfed the structure. That prevented first responders from initially accessing the residence where several people were trapped inside, Rockland County Executive Ed Day explained at a briefing.
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Once inside, crews found three people on the second floor and two others on the first floor, possibly fallen from a partial collapse during the fire.
A cousin of one of the victims said a father managed to get his wife and daughter out of the burning home, but was not able to get himself out in time.
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"He lost his life trying to save his boy. His boy was four years old," the cousin said. "He was a hero. He saved his wife and baby girl."
Many in the community who attended the vigil gathered to light a candle and donate money to help the victims.
"It's not my family, but when I hear -- I have kids -- especially when I hear a kid four years old, that breaks my heart. Can you imagine," one woman said.
Fire investigators have not yet determined a cause of the fire.
The home sits down the street, within walking distance, of the adult home where a resident and volunteer firefighter died in a blaze in March 2021. Although there is no apparent connection between the deadly fires at the Lake Street home and Evergreen Court facility, the latter was top of mind for officials Saturday morning.
"Having been at both scenes, I can certainly agree with you, it is a very eerie feeling," Day said.
