Burning incense ignited the blaze that killed two toddlers left home alone in the Bronx, fire officials said Thursday.
The flames broke out in the third-floor apartment of the Butler Houses on Webster Avenue around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and quickly overtook the two baby sisters inside — 2-year-old Jannubi Jabie and 18-month-old Amanda Jabie.
The children’s 26-year-old mother, Haja Tunkara, who is Muslim and hails from Gambia, left the kids alone as the incense burned in the apartment with no working smoke detectors and ran across the street to do laundry, officials said.
Surveillance video at the Webster Laundromat shows the mom inside putting laundry into a bag at 6:24 p.m. just moments before the flames erupted.
When Tunkara returned, she saw smoke pouring from the window of her apartment, where her kids were trapped inside, and began screaming and crying, neighbors said.
“I saw the mother crossing the street and she was crying, ‘My kids, my kids, I hope it’s not my apartment,’ and when she saw the kids on the stretcher, she just collapsed,” said neighbor Chantay Foy, who lives one floor above the family’s apartment in Claremont Village.
The devastated mom, who doesn’t speak English, returned home Thursday weeping.
Foy said Tunkara “usually” burned incense by the window while she left the children home alone.
“It’s to bless the house and they usually do that,” said Foy, adding that she had warned the mother about burning incense with the kids unattended in the past.
“I mentioned it to her because the smell was very strong and I live above her and I told her it’s very dangerous, you have kids and anything can happen. I told her you need to watch your kids.”
Musa Kabba, an imam at the nearby Masjid Rahman Mosque, who aided the devastated family Thursday, said that “it was not [Tunkara’s] intention to leave her family alone.”
“She was about to come back to them quickly, but it takes long there and then it happened,” said Kabba, who added that Tunkara is now relying on God to get her through this.
“She’s praying for the two little girls,” he said.
Neighbors desperately tried to reach the trapped children but were unsuccessful. By the time firefighters managed to reach them, the girls were badly burned and had suffered severe smoke inhalation.
“I could hear [the children] crying and all of a sudden I heard them stop,” said neighbor Gladys Dozier. “It hurt because I’m a grandmother. It is heartbreaking.”
The children’s uncle Saikou Bayo, 49, who lives on the 21st floor of the building, said the burning of the incense was part of a religious Muslim tradition.
“It’s Muslim,” he said. “[You want to make the house] good smelling.”
He described the kids as “very nice kids. They’re always happy.”
Neighbors set up a makeshift memorial for the children outside the building with stuffed teddy bears and candles.
“It’s a horrible tragedy,” said Yvonne Melendez, who lives on the 10th floor. “We’ve all been crying in the building.”
“You don’t leave children alone,” Melendez added. “I know [Tunkara] is going to suffer for the rest of her life.”