A neighbor of the family killed by a Halloween night fire that destroyed their Paterson home is “devastated” that she couldn’t rescue them in time.
“We tried. We tried,” said Fatima Ali, who lived next door to the family. “We were able to help the first floor. We couldn’t do the second. And we are devastated, because these are people we saw every day for the past six years.
“These kids were always there laughing. It’s just a horrible feeling.”
The family, which included three children aged 14, 12 and 7, were all found dead in the second floor of their New Jersey home Friday. Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh said the father was Palestinian and related to NJ assemblyman Al Abdelaziz.
The fire broke out around 10 p.m. and spread quickly thanks to strong winds in the area, according to fire officials.
Ali said that her kids first noticed that their neighbor’s backyard was on fire when they saw smoke emerging from the house.
The blaze started beneath a staircase that leads to the second floor — where there was always piles of wood stacked, she said.
“My kids were outside playing soccer, it’s cold. … All of a sudden, my son’s like, ‘do you smell something?’ And my daughter’s like ‘that’s smoke, mom, look, there’s smoke over there on that house,’” Ali said.
She said she ran to their house and banged on their door yelling “your whole backyard is on fire.”
Three families each lived on a separate floor of the home, according to neighbors.
Ali found the first-floor family watching TV, unaware of the inferno starting to rage. She said the first floor family had two babies.
The mother, after Ali came to her door, checked her daughter’s room and realized that it was filled with smoke, and the family quickly fled — but she “was screaming, there’s kids upstairs. There’s kids upstairs,” Ali said.
Ali’s nephew tried to rush to the second floor to rescue the children, but the stairs leading to the second floor were completely engulfed in flames.
The family couldn’t exit from the windows, she said, because the outdoor staircase was on fire.
“The fire escalated so fast it was just too much,” she said. “The wind was playing a big part on this fire. It was horrible.
“These were kids, you know, my kids literally grew up with, but it’s horrible.”
Sayegh, the mayor, said the family’s passing has left his city in grief.
“You have three children who woke up yesterday thinking about Halloween, trick or treating, and unfortunately this is how their lives end, in tragic fashion,’ he said. “You have a father, a mother and three children, children all under the age of 15 years old, and it leaves a community grieving.”
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