Brooklyn Rabbi’s Son Dies in Sukkot Fire
The 8-year-old son of a Brooklyn rabbi died in a Midwood house fire last night as his family celebrated the end of Sukkot and Simchat Torah’s start outside. Avigdor Krasny was the only one of six children who didn’t escape the blaze, according to an Associated Press report. His siblings were saved by their father, Rabbi Jacob Krasny, according to NY1 News. Three surviving brothers, ages 3, 7 and 10, and two sisters, ages 1 and 5, are in critical condition at Staten Island University Hospital.
Neighbors praised the parents’ heroics, NY1 reported. “Jewish father, Jewish mother, they had the heart to take the children out. It comes naturally,” said family friend Joel Felberbaum.
Fire officials say the blaze started in the apartment’s kitchen, but the cause is still under investigation.
“The whole community is mourning,” Ben Greiper, a rabbi, told the New York Daily News. “These were amazing people. We’re all devastated.”
The kids’ site NickJr.com estimates that candles account for 5 percent of all home fires. Among other safety tips, the site warns that parents should never leave a lit candle unattended, and always extinguish candles before leaving the house or sleeping.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
