PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The range of emotions was poignant and powerful among the many family members and friends of the victims of the fire which killed 12 people, including eight children, in Philadelphia's Fairmount neighborhood Wednesday.
Some who escaped the fire gathered to get warm and find out information at a temporary shelter in the nearby Bache-Martin Elementary School at North 22nd and Parrish streets. Others gathered in prayer circles to help console each other and cope with what has been described as one of the most tragic days in recent Philadelphia history.
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"We don’t really know what to say. Everybody is still in shock," said Jacuita Purifoy, who said she is a sister and aunt of the victims who died.
“[We] sisters talked every day. So I didn’t hear anything from them. And hearing it from someone else that doesn’t even live here, it was even worse.”
“It’s a whole bunch of emotions, anger, sorrow, confusion, questions," Rabyna Turner of West Philadelphia said.
"It's just a lot. The minute you think of something, another question pops up in your head, or just a visual of what was going on with the children in the house and being trapped with no way out, no help and it was just a blaze.“
She lives in another Philadelphia Housing Authority property. Even though she didn’t know anyone who lived in the North 23rd Street apartments, she feels a connection with them.
“I feel that living on a PHA property, we are all family," she said. "We are low income. We get subsidized rent for it. I feel it’s part of my family, my extended family.“
Family members of the fire victims formed a prayer circle of their own.
Neighbors like Maria Fordyce put out flowers and candles as they tried to wrap their heads around this tragedy in their tight-knit community.
“Just heartbroken. These are kids and people that we see walking around, riding their bikes," said Fordyce.
Crisis advocates like Jameela Muhammad with the Philadelphia Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network were out in the neighborhood, handing out fliers to community members informing them about available resources.
“Trying to offer some support, resources, services to the neighbors." We offer trauma counseling and crisis help and things like that,” Muhammad said.
“What we do know is that we’re all feeling that heaviness, that sorrow in our hearts," added Pastor Stephen Weeks.
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Relief that her family survived, anguish that others perished
Yvette Woods' two sons, 7 and 13, got out of the building. One boy had burns on his arm, while the other had burns on his head.
"I just want to know what happened. I wasn't home. I was out of town," Woods said.
"My daughter called me and told me that there was a fire, and she was crying and scared."
Woods called Turner around 6:30 a.m. to rush to their apartment.
"I'm thankful that my family was able to make it out ... with the minor burns that they had," said Turner.
"On the other hand, it sickens me that all of those other kids had to lose their lives."
Turner added that the condition of the house, owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, was not what it was supposed to have been.
"My cousin wrote numerous times about situations," she said. "They just need to make sure that they get these letters from people who live in these houses."
'I could have prevented something'
Among those at the scene looking for their loved ones was Isaiah Brown, 18 from Northeast Philadelphia. He said he knew everyone who died in Wednesday morning’s fire.
He had spoken to one of his cousins who was in the house at 5 a.m., shortly before the fire unexpectedly began.
"He was like, 'Come pick me up,' but I couldn't be there for him at the time. I was actually doing something," Brown said.
"This wound up happening at 6 a.m., and I was just devastated."
Brown described his 16-year-old cousin as someone who looked up to him and always wanted to hang out, including early this morning.
"I just feel bad. I just felt like I took that loss deeply. Like, it hurt me. Like, I feel like I could have been there. You know what I'm saying? I wasn't," he said with regret.
"I could have prevented something."
Brown said he could imagine the moments when the fire engulfed the victims' home.
"All the pain they must have been going through, you know, struggling to get out of their house. I can only imagine what they were going through. I just want to say I'm sorry, to everyone who was connected to them."
Brown said news of the fatalities has shaken his family, particularly his mother whom he says is the aunt of some of the children who died.
"My mom was crying. My family, just like, 'We lost him. We can't see them anymore, and all those faces that we can't see anymore.' And, you know, it was devastating. It hurts," he said.
"She says she's hurt, broken into pieces. Like she was saying, 'That's our babies.'"