A Brooklyn couple and two of their grandchildren – a 7-month-old boy and 7-year-old girl – were killed last night after a horrific fire swept through their sixth-floor apartment, police and fire officials said.
The blaze broke out inside 626 Wythe Place in Williamsburg just before 8:20 p.m., leaving the seven people inside the home trying frantically to elude the engulfing smoke and flames, officials said.
“This is a tragedy,” said a police source. “I don’t know how this family is going to deal with this.”
It was unclear what sparked the fatal blaze, which started in the living room couch, then quickly ravaged the rest of the room and surrounding bedrooms.
“There’s a good chance they made a decision to go into the bedroom and had trouble closing the door,” said FDNY Assistant Chief Joseph Callahan.
“You heard the kids screaming ‘Help us! We can’t breathe!’ ” said neighbor Michelle Cerrano. “It was scary.”
“I saw the smoke and I heard them all screaming ‘Call the Fire Department!’ ” said eyewitness, Deziree Ashby, 19. “It was just black smoke coming out of all of the windows.”
The Fire Department and the NYPD offered varying preliminary accounts of the number of people hurt, but both agreed four people perished in the blaze.
Murlene Williams Newton, 60, and her husband Joe Newton, 67, died along with 7-month-old Dayshon Williams and 7-year-old Weda Williams, according to police sources.
“She was an excellent human being,” said Newton’s grief-stricken niece, Jackie Williams as she stood outside Woodhull with 15 furiously sobbing family members. “She was remarkable, very outgoing.”
The family matriarch was described as a church-going grandmother of 15 children who devoted much of her energy maintaining the Two Light Ministry on St. John’s Place.
“She was the most kind and gentle person I knew,” said her devastated brother Ellis Williams. “She was a pillar of the community.”
An unidentified 37-year-old woman was clinging to life at Woodhull, while a 14-year-old girl caught in the blaze was in critical condition at Brooklyn Hospital, cops said.
Anisha Newton, 17, who is seven-months pregnant, was dramatically pulled from the blaze by firefighters who used a ladder to get the girl out of the apartment through the window. She is listed in stable condition.