Blaze kills entire Dominican family of four in New York

New York.- Four members of a Dominican family died in a fire at South Bond St. in Mount Vernon Tuesday, in which three firefighters were also injured.

Dead in the blaze were Alcedo (father), Nancy (mother), Jesus (son) and Mariselis Ureña (daughter), natives of Mao, Valverde, Dominican Republic northwest, just one year after having emigrated to New York.

The fire began around 3:30am while the victims slept in the basement of the house and couldn’t fight their way out, and were trapped by the flames which took firefighters four hours to souse.

"There were flames everywhere. My people, the Fire Department, got as close as we could but couldn’t get to the victims," said Mount Vernon Fire Dept. Deputy Chief John Batista.