The identities of the 17 people killed in the terrible high-rise fire in the Bronx on Sunday have been disclosed.
The fatalities include eight children, from ages 2 to 12 and a 50-year-old mother who was the oldest of the seventeen victims.
According to the medical examiner’s office, all of the victims died of smoke inhalation and some of the bodies have been released to funeral homes.
According to the NY Post, the following is a list of those who died in the fire:
Five members of the Dukureh family perished in the fire: Haji Dukuray, 49, his wife, Haja Dukureh, 37, and their children, Mustapha Dukureh, 12, Mariam Dukureh, 12, and Fatoumata Dukureh, 5.
Haji Dukuray, Haja Dukureh’s uncle who shares the name with the patriarch, said The Gambia was his family’s homeland and relatives are considering burying them in New York or the African country.
In addition to the Dukureh family, four other individuals from the Drammeh family where also killed in the Bronx fire, Fatoumata, 50, Foutmala, 21, Muhammed, 12, and Nyumaaisha, 19.
Fatoumata’s Husband, Patriarch Ishak Drammeh, 50, was working in Ohio on the day of the fire and is grieving the loss of his wife of 28 years and his children.
The grieving father said that the Muhammad died a day after his 12th birthday and his daughter Foutmala was a student at the University of Buffalo and Nyumaaisha worked as a healthcare worker.
Two other victims were identified as mother and son. Tunkara, 43, and one of her five children, 6-year-old Omar Jambang.
According to a GoFundMe page ran by her family, Tunkara is survived by her four other children, ranging in age from 9 to 19 years old. Tunkara and her son will be sent back home to her native Gambia and a foundation will be set up to support her surviving children.
Another victim, Sheba Janneh was a 27-year-old student at Lehman College.
According to her father, Tijan Janneh, his family fled the building, but were separated by smoke because they couldn’t see.
“Later on they just broke the news to us,” he said. “My daughter is gone.”
Police also identified two more children who were among the fatalities as Haouwa Mahamadou, 5 and Seydou Toure, 12.
Husband and wife, Hagi Jawara, 47 and Isatou Jabbie, 31 who leave behind four surviving children, were also identified.
Yusupha Jawara, Jawara’s brother, said relatives will tell the children about their parents’ deaths at a more “appropriate” time.
“[Jabbie] loved her kids to death,” Jawara said. “The kids were her life.
“Right now, we are trying to get the bodies and arrange the funerals and how to break the news to [the children],” Jawara said. “Then, as a family, we will sit down together and figure out what will happen next.”
The last victim identified was the youngest out of them all, 2-year-old Ousmane Konteh.
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