What to Know
- Five people died, including four children, in New York City's deadliest fire since 2015, when seven kids were killed
- The blaze broke out Sunday afternoon in Queens Village; by the time the flames were out, only a charred structure remained
- There is no immediate theory as to what sparked the blaze, but investigators are searching for clues
Friends and family gathered Saturday to mourn three children and a young adult who died in the deadliest fire in New York City in years.
Visitation for the four was held in the morning, followed by a funeral at New Greater Bethel Ministries on Jamaica Avenue in Queens.
Chayce Lipford, 2, Rashawn Matthews, 9, Jady Foxworth, 17, and Destiny Vickers, 21, died in the April 25 fire in Queens Village. They were all related, although the details of their relationships weren't disclosed.
A fifth victim, Melody Edwards, 17, was a friend who was visiting during the fire. Her funeral was held Wednesday.
"This is something that in your worst nightmare you wouldn't believe," the Rev. Al Sharpton said as he entered the funeral. He said he had spoken to the family by phone.
"There's no way you can comprehend the pain and suffering the survivors have," Sharpton said.
No possible cause for the blaze has been released. A burned-out car was found nearby, but Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said investigators don't believe that ignited the house.
No working smoke detectors were found in the home, authorities said.
Nigro said a passing motorist saw someone tumble from a window as smoke billowed from the structure, and that motorist called the fire department. The man who tumbled from the window, believed to be in his 40s, fell onto a porch roof, then rolled onto a lawn, Nigro said. He is the lone survivor; authorities believe he may be the father of the dead toddler.
The wood-frame home burned rapidly and was already engulfed in flames by the time firefighters arrived. They struggled to reach some of the victims who were as high up as the attic, a "super-human" task for firefighters to reach people in a home engulfed by such a massive fire, Nigro said.
They managed to bring the toddler and someone else from the attic where they had been trapped, he said. But they couldn't be saved.
The fire was the deadliest in the nation's biggest city since March 2015, when a house fire in Brooklyn touched off by a hot plate killed seven children, all siblings.
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Sharpton runs the National Action Network and is a talk-show host on MSNBC, which is owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of this site.
