Four years after a deadly fire tore through Twin Parks, survivors and loved ones gathered to remember the 17 people who lost their lives \u2014 eight of them children \u2014 and to honor the strength that carried them through unimaginable grief.<\/p>\n
FDNY leaders would later describe the January blaze as a battlefield \u2014 one of the deadliest fires New York City has seen in decades \u2014 devastating families across the borough\u2019s Gambian community.<\/p>\n
At a vigil held at Borough Hall, Vanessa Gibson reflected on rushing to the scene during her first week in office. For a moment, the room fell completely silent as survivors and city leaders bowed their heads in prayer.<\/p>\n
Names and faces of the eight children lost in the blaze, survivors say, are forever etched into the heart of the Fordham community.<\/p>\n
Haji Bukuray, who lost five members of his family in the fire, said the pain is permanent \u2014 but so is the support that has surrounded survivors.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, I lost five members of my family,\u201d Bukuray said. \u201cBut I gained family, too. Look at the people behind us \u2014 the people who stood with us, who continue to stand with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators with the FDNY say a space heater sparked the fire on a bitter January day, but faulty self-closing fire doors allowed flames and smoke to spread rapidly through all 19 stories of the building.<\/p>\n
NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who joined other city leaders at a nearby mosque where many victims once worshiped, said the tragedy highlights deeper, systemic housing issues in the Bronx \u2014 pointing to unreliable heat as a key reason tenants rely on space heaters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the problems,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe can\u2019t bring these families back, but we should use their memories to prevent adding more names.\u201d<\/p>\n
Survivors told News 12 that while the pain never fades, it\u2019s their faith \u2014 and the strength they draw from one another \u2014 that continues to carry them forward, four years later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four years after a deadly fire tore through Twin Parks, survivors and loved ones gathered to remember the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,543,7403,7404,545,544,15308,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-95552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-building-fire","10":"tag-deadly-fire","11":"tag-fatal-fire","12":"tag-fire","13":"tag-fires","14":"tag-fordham","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-the-bronx","19":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","20":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}