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Four children die in Teaneck house fire

four children will be buried today, victims of a fire that
swept their home, a three-story brick Tudor Revival at 501 Rutland
Ave. The blaze, traced to the power lines for basement appliances,
broke out about 1:45 a.m. Tuesday - mere hours after fire officials
had inspected the house and declared it safe.
On Tuesday night, two of the surviving siblings - who were rescued by
a neighbor with a ladder - remained hospitalized, and their 42-year-
old mother, Philyss Seidenfeld, was in critical condition. Her ex-
husband, who lives in New York City, went to her bedside; the eldest
of their seven children was heading home from school in Israel.
The tragedy left township firefighters distraught but certain they
had done all they could, from the moment the mother first called at
8:30 p.m. to report something was burning. And it left friends and
classmates bereft over so many missed opportunities to prevent four
deaths.
"On our [first] arrival, there was no smoke," said Teaneck Fire Chief
John Bauer. "We spent over a half-hour checking the house. We
couldn't find anything wrong with the house. We checked all the
electrical devices."
A little over five hours later, police received a 911 call from the
family's nanny, 37-year-old Betty Mbaza, followed by three calls from
neighbors, all reporting flames. Before officers arrived, next-door
neighbor Paul Gingras had used his extension ladder to scale a porch
roof and rescue two children from a second-floor bathroom window.
"He's a hero," Bauer said.

But no one could reach the four other children. Thick smoke,
bellowing from most of the windows, thwarted the police officers. One
window was blocked by an air conditioner. Philyss Seidenfeld, wedged
in a bathroom window, was freed only after firefighters broke the
frame. Then they found two children on the bathroom floor and two
more in the attic.
The would-be rescuers were devastated.
"You don't want to be the guy who leaves a run without finding
anything and then a family dies," one fire official said.
"It's a tough scene," a police official said. "You go in and you see
baby shoes and it gets to you."

The victims were identified as:
ŸAri, 15, a student at Mesivta of North Jersey in Newark. He was
pronounced dead at Hackensack University Medical Center.


ŸNoah, 6, a student at Yeshivat Noam in Bergenfield. He was
pronounced dead at Hackensack University Medical Center.


ŸAdira, 5. She was pronounced dead at Holy Name Hospital, Teaneck.


ŸNatan, 4, a child with Down syndrome and a pre-kindergarten student
at Bryant Elementary School in Teaneck. He was pronounced dead at
Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.

The two siblings rescued by ladder were 14-year-old Zahava, a student
at Yeshiva of North Jersey in River Edge, and 7-year-old Aviva, a
student at Whittier Elementary School in Teaneck. They were being
treated at the Hackensack hospital.

The eldest, 17-year-old Helena, was flying home from Israel, where
she had been studying for a year. She was accompanied by an aunt and
uncle, according to officials from her school, Ayelet Hashachar near
Tel Aviv.