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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 25 april 2017

Investigators sift through wreckage after fire that killed 5

COLLEEN LONG was 9, Jada was 17 and
Associated Press Destiny was 21 with the last
NEW YORK (AP) — Fire mar- name of Vicars instead of
shals sifted through charred Dones.
wreckage and worked The person who fell from
through the night to try to the window was a man
determine what sparked a who hit a porch roof, then
fast-moving house fire that landed on the lawn, Nigro
killed five people, including said. He was hospitalized
two boys and two teen- and expected to survive.
age girls, but don’t believe A neighboring home also
the blaze spread from a caught fire and was badly
car found burned out in damaged, but no one was
the driveway, officials said inside at the time. Four fire-
Monday. fighters suffered minor inju-
The Sunday afternoon ries; no other people were
blaze rapidly engulfed injured.
the wooden single-family Neighbor Dorothy Murray
home in Queens Village, told reporters that when
a middle-class neighbor- she looked out her door
hood near Belmont Park, and saw the fire, “I could
which hosts the Belmont In this photo provided by the New York City Fire Department, firefighters work to put out a deadly have fainted.”
Stakes, the final leg in horse house fire in the Queens Village neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York, Sunday, April “The fire was so intense —
racing’s Triple Crown. 23, 2017. Investigators are scouring for clues about what sparked a fast-moving New York City there’s no way in the world
A passing motorist called house fire that killed multiple people. nobody could go over
911 to say someone had (New York City Fire Department via AP) there to save nobody,”
jumped from a window, related and one was a 10-year-old Rashawn Mat- old Destiny Dones. Murray said.
and by the time firefight- friend, authorities said. thews, 16-year-old Jada The fire department gave First-responders carried
ers arrived moments lat- Police identified them as Foxworth, 17-year-old Mel- conflicting IDs for some of a limp child from the
er, flames were chewing 2-year-old Chayce Lipford, ody Edwards and 20-year- the victims, saying Rashawn wreckage.q
through the roof and roar-
ing in upstairs windows. No New Orleans takes down white supremacist monument
working smoke detectors
were found.
“The firefighters on the JESSE J. HOLLAND a biracial Reconstruction put on a pedestal in the cists,” Landrieu said. “Of
scene did all that they GERALD HERBERT government installed in heart of our city,” Mayor the four that we will move,
could and more to try to Associated Press New Orleans after the Civil Mitch Landrieu vowed. this statue is perhaps the
save these children,” Fire NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A War, was taken away on a The removal of the obelisk most blatant affront to the
Commissioner Daniel Nigro monument to a deadly truck in pieces before day- was carried out early in the values that make America
said. Firefighters raced into white-supremacist uprising break after a few hours of morning because of death and New Orleans strong to-
the burning building, mak- in 1874 was removed under work. threats and fears of disrup- day.”
ing it up to the attic where cover of darkness by work- In the coming days, the city tion from supporters of the Citing safety concerns, the
some of the victims were ers in masks and bulletproof will also remove three stat- monuments. mayor would not disclose
trapped, but couldn’t vests Monday as New Or- ues of Confederate Gens. The workers wore military- exactly when the other
reach them in time. leans joined the movement Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. style helmets and had monuments would be tak-
“It’s a very, very sad day to take down symbols of Beauregard and Confed- scarves over their faces. en down, except to say
for the people of our city the Confederacy and the erate President Jefferson Police were on hand, with that it will be done at night
when five young lives are Jim Crow South. Davis, now that legal chal- officers watching from atop to avoid trouble.
taken from us in the course The Liberty Place monu- lenges have been over- a hotel parking garage. He said the monuments will
of a quiet Sunday after- ment, a 35-foot granite come. “The statue was put up to be put in storage until an
noon,” he said. obelisk that pays tribute to “We will no longer allow the honor the killing of police appropriate place to dis-
Most of the victims were whites who tried to topple Confederacy to literally be officers by white suprema- play them is determined.q