A third victim -- another child -- has succumbed to injuries sustained in a devastating Brooklyn house fire earlier this week -- and cops are looking into whether the father, who survived with burns, may have sparked it by accident.
The NYPD confirmed Thursday that the 10-year-old girl, one of four children initially hospitalized in critical condition following Tuesday's pre-dawn fire on Fountain Avenue in East New York.
She died Wednesday, police said. Another of those badly injured children, a 17-year-old girl, passed away the same afternoon as the info, while a 36-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the charred scene. The two surviving kids, a 9-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, are still fighting for their lives, police said in their Wednesday update.
Their father, as police identified him to The New York Times, was the least severely injured. He remained hospitalized Thursday but is expected to survive. Accelerant had been found at the fiery scene, and investigators confirmed Thursday that the substance was among materials the father was using to make vape products to sell.
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The cause of the fire, though, remains under investigation. None of the victims' identities has been released.
People living along the 100 block of Fountain Avenue woke up to the sound of screams and the smell of smoke taking over a three-story home just after 2 a.m. Monday. The fire had engulfed the home after starting at the front door and quickly extending up the stairs to the second level, fire officials said.
Firefighters raced to the scene, arriving in less than three minutes, but a car parked in front of a fire hydrant cost crews precious minutes, as the victims were trapped inside by the flames.
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Neighbors said the family who lived there, originally from Yemen, was a pillar in the community.
"The family is well known throughout the community, they speak to everybody, they wave," said LaShanna Bray. "I can’t see anybody that would want to harm them. Like I said, they’re a pillar of the community, they’ve been here for 10 years."
