“My sisters and my nephews have left. They will not return ”: house fire kills 13, including 7 children, in Philadelphia

Jacuita and Qaadira Purifoy have suddenly lost three sisters and seven young nephews in the fire that devastated a house in the city of Philadelphia, is of U.S, in which thirteen people perished in one of the worst accidents in the recent history of the country.

“I do not know what to do. I do not know what to say”, The oldest, Jacuita, 37, says devastated, trying to comfort her 33-year-old sister when she breaks down in tears, in front of the Bache Martin elementary school, located near the three-story house that burned down at dawn for reasons still unknown, where the families of the victims have gathered.

“Come on sister, stop crying”, This woman with dyed orange hair, a piercing in an eyebrow and another in her tongue, as well as a small tattoo on one hand, says to the smallest while patting her back.

Showing surprising strength, Jacuita Purifoy tells AFP: “My sisters and my nieces and nephews are gone, they are dead. They will not return ”.

They were between 33 years and 1 year old.

Someone has placed a rose on the ground under a police seal around the burned-out brick building, located at the end of a row of similar houses in a densely populated area of ​​Philadelphia.

A Salvation Army truck with food for the victims’ families has parked near the police vehicles. The causes of one of the worst fires in the recent history of the country are still unknown.

“We don’t know what happened. We are trying to imagine it ”, dice Jacuita Purifoy.

A five-year-old nephew, who is hospitalized, is the only survivor of the family who lived in the three-story house divided into two apartments, one of them a duplex.

“He asks about his mother, about his father, about his sisters, about his cousins. Ask about everyone he has lived with in the last five years “, dice.

The Purifoy sisters had only recently lost their father. This “brought us together”, he says. “We were together, we were a family.”

The city of Philadelphia, on the east coast of U.S, lived this Wednesday one of the worst tragedies in its recent history.

“Currently, the balance is 13 dead”, including seven minors, said Craig Murphy, deputy commissioner of the city fire department.

Likewise, two people, including the minor, were hospitalized in serious condition.

At least 26 people lived in the building, owned by the city’s Housing Department. Eight of them would have managed to escape the flames that were unleashed at dawn.

“I have no words to describe what we feel as a community and as a department”said Murphy who said, visibly moved, that in 35 years in the body “this is one of the worst fires” he has witnessed.

“This is undoubtedly one of the most tragic days in the history of our city”, he told the press the Mayor of Philadelphia, Jim Kenney.

The firefighters arrived at the official protection building around 06:40 (11:40 GMT) and it took them “50 minutes to control the fire.”

In the images broadcast by American televisions, the cordoned off area and the windows of the second and third floors were blackened by smoke.

Bad smoke detectors

According to Murphy, the Housing Department inspected the three-story brick building in 2019 and 2020 and installed smoke detectors but at least four of them were not operational Wednesday.

The firefighters and the municipality announced that they have initiated an investigation to determine the causes of the accident.

In December 2017, twelve people, including four minors, perished in a fire in the borough of the Bronx, in New York, the most serious in 25 years in the city that was caused by a minor of three and a half years who was playing with a gas stove.

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