Vanessa McDonald might never recover from the loss of her daughters and grandchildren in one of the deadliest fires in Philadelphia history.
McDonald is in a state of shock and not speaking about the early morning fire that left 12 dead, said Tommy White, her first cousin.
On Thursday night, a family spokeswoman identified her daughters as fire victims She identified Rosalee McDonald, 33, Virginia Thomas, 30, and Quinsha White, and said she lost nine grandchildren in the fire Wednesday in the Fairmount section.
“We’re just trying to cushion the blow for them at this time,” said White earlier Thursday. “They are still in a place of denial. They are still struggling to accept this.
“The pain they are experiencing and the things that they are going to continue to feel for the rest of their lives — that’s the part they share alone,” White continued. “At this point in time, Vanessa is not in a position to talk about that because her heart is not there.”
Investigation probes possibility child started fire
A day after the fire, investigators were looking into the possibility that a 5-year-old child who was playing with a lighter set a Christmas tree on fire, sparking a blaze that killed 12 people in the Fairmount rowhome, officials revealed Thursday.
The detail was found in a search warrant application as city and federal investigators sought to determine the cause of the fire, which took the lives of two sisters, several of their children and others early Wednesday.
Jane Roh, spokesperson for District Attorney Larry Krasner, confirmed the contents of the search warrant, which was first reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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White said he did not want to discuss details about the family and did not know why so many were living in the rowhome at the time of the fire.
“Whatever circumstances led them to that place, this is where they had their shelter,” said White. “I don’t know if it was temporary housing or were they visiting.”
Isaiah Brown, who identified himself as a cousin of all 13 victims, said his family would be praying and trying to get through the tragedy together. He said he believed the youngest victim was 2 years old.
“These were my little cousins, some of them looked up to me,” he said of the children killed. “I just feel bad … None of them made it past 18.”
White received a phone call from a relative at about noon Wednesday and learned about the deaths when arriving on the scene a short time later, he said. Relatives and friends remained together late into the evening.
“Vanessa lost her daughter and her grandchildren,” said White. “We can never begin to understand how she must feel.”
A police procession, including four vans, took the bodies of the victims from the burned-out home Wednesday evening as family members and neighbors watched from the corner near the 23rd Street house.
Remembering a family lost
A small memorial with stuffed animals was set up near the house Thursday and grew throughout the day. The night ended with a small vigil in the neighborhood attended by family, friends and community members.
At the candlelight vigil across from the neighborhood school, family spokeswoman Andrea Underwood fought back tears in the biting January cold as she read a statement prepared by the family.
“Our family would like to thank everyone for their kindness, generosity, and prayers during this horrific time. We feel the love and appreciate the support,” Underwood said, adding that the family is requesting privacy at this time.
She identified Rosalee McDonald, Virginia Thomas and Quinsha White as daughters of Vanessa McDonald.
“She also lost nine grandchildren in the fire. There were two survivors,” Underwood said. “We are waiting for additional information in order to move forward with the memorial services.”
Several dozen people, holding an assortment of candles, lighters and mini flashlights, stood quietly as the family held hands and observed a moment of silence before releasing balloons into the frigid night air, a silence only broken by the weeping of the family members, friends, and even random neighbors that didn’t know the family personally.
Christopher Stanford and his wife, Marci, brought their young children to the vigil, just to pay their respects and show that neighbors do care and are here for the family.
“This is and will be a trying time for them. They may not know it, but the community is here for them and loves them,” Stanford said. “We will help them; I know we all will help them.”
Some of the children were students in city schools, according to statement.
“The School District of Philadelphia is heartbroken over the tragic news of yesterday’s house fire in Philadelphia’s Fairmount neighborhood, which claimed the lives of 12 people, including children associated with our District. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family members, friends and school communities who are grieving this unimaginable loss,” it read.
The area was still cordoned off to vehicle traffic Thursday afternoon, and just a few passers-by were allowed access.
The impact of the fire reverberated throughout the neighborhood.
“It broke my heart that children needlessly lost their lives,” said Monica Bradley, who lives in the neighborhood. “The news said something about smoke detectors not working. This could have been prevented.”
Matthew Nobles was waiting for the bus a few blocks away on Girard Avenue near Ridge. He, too, wondered of the conditions inside the residence.
“It was a tragedy waiting to happen,” Nobles said commenting on the number of people in the building. “In those types of buildings, it looks like there were no other ways out, except for the front door and the back door. This is a disaster. Hopefully, this causes PHA and the city to take a hard look at how they rent out these properties and how they are maintained.”
At least 18 people were living in the upper apartment, which included the third floor and part of the second, and eight people were living in the lower unit, which included the first floor and the other part of the second, officials have said. It was a Philadelphia Housing Authority building.
Deputy Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy said Wednesday he could not say whether that was more than what would be allowed, but called it a “tremendous amount of people to be living in a duplex.”
The quick-moving blaze remains under investigation.
“Yesterday was an incredibly tragic day for our entire city,” said Mayor Jim Kenney at a news conference Thursday afternoon, adding that first responders and other city agencies have been working nonstop since the fire. ” .. The city continues to respond to this tragedy with ever lever we have available and we continue to provide support for survivors, friends and family who are still processing this tragedy.”
ATF joins investigation in deadly fire
Authorities did not release any additional or new information about their investigation into the cause and origin of the fatal fire, the deadliest in the city in over a century. They said they held the afternoon news conference to discuss the investigative process, not their preliminary findings.
Meanwhile Thursday, specialists from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives took photos and then entered the charred, three-story brick duplex, where the city’s deadliest single blaze in more than a century took the lives of eight children. The city fire marshal requested ATF’s assistance.
An ATF national response team has joined the investigation with electrical engineers and cameras that produce three-dimension scans of each room, said city Deputy Fire Chief Dennis Merrigan.
“This is a resource intensive investigation. It’s an exceptional time, manpower, staffing, equipment to get to the origin and cause of this tragedy,” he said. “… It’s a very traumatic scene and its very complicated, complex investigation. It’s multi-level, multi-faceted and something that would challenge us if we had to do it on our own.”
City officials said the extraordinary number of fatalities in the case warrants extreme attention. Murphy said that investigators would not speculate on the cause of the fire so early in the investigation.
All those who died are believed to be from what was known as Unit B of the three-story rowhome that was split into two apartments, officials said. Unit B occupied the second and third floors and included four bedrooms, officials said.
The Escamillio D. Jones Funeral Home, of Philadelphia, said it was speaking with the some of families of the victims and had offered to provide the funeral services at no cost. White confirmed that he was speaking with that funeral home. As yet, there are no plans for the funerals, he said.
The family is also concerned with fake or suspect gofundme online fundraisers on their behalf. The family has authorized one gofundme campaign and some family members have posted it on social media.
“This has devastated our entire family and we are humbly asking our community for assistance,” the webpage said.
The Philadelphia school district said Thursday that counseling and support services were available for grieving students and staff. The city’s emergency management office opened up a support center for friends and relatives at an elementary school that one of the victims attended.
At least two people were hospitalized and some others managed to escape from the building, which is public housing, officials have said. Officials said 26 people had been staying in the two apartments.
PHA: 14 people living in home where fire started, another 6 lived downstairs
Fourteen people were authorized to live in the four-bedroom upper apartment that “suffered the tragedy,” according to Kelvin Jeremiah, the housing authority’s president and CEO, while six people were on the lease in the lower unit.
When the family upstairs became tenants in 2011, there were six people — a grandmother, her three daughters and two of their children, Jeremiah said. He said the family grew over the next decade to add another eight children.
PHA “does not evict people because they have children,” Jeremiah said.
“This was an intact family who chose to live together. We don’t kick out our family members … who might not have other suitable housing options,” he said.
Jeremiah, who struggled to keep his composure at times, said the authority has reached out to the surviving family members from both units to help rehouse them.
“All of us at PHA are shaken,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
