BROOKLYN (VINnews/Sandy Eller) – A Chasidic woman from Williamsburg is being laid to rest after succumbing to injuries sustained in a January 23rd two alarm fire.
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Rebbetzin Rechel Breindel Teitelbaum, wife of Rabbi Lipa Teitelbaum, passed away on Thursday at the age of 71. Her funeral was held on Thursday night at her husband’s beis medrash, located at 177 Harrison Street inside the Bais Ruchel High School, with burial following at the Satmar Cemetery in Kiryas Joel.
Mrs. Teitelbaum was one of 17 victims of an early morning fire at 265 Penn Street and was transported immediately to the hospital by Hatzalah members.
According to the FDNY, the fire was reported at 6:38 AM, with firefighters arriving on scene in less than four minutes and finding the building’s first floor being ravaged by heavy flames that were spreading steadily upward to the second story.
More than 100 firefighters responded to the scene as the blaze escalated to a second alarm, with multiple hoses linked together to put out the flames.
Speaking at a press conference after the flames were extinguished, FDNY Assistant Chief Fred Villani credited Hatzalah members for responding to the fire, noting that a large number of injured residents were removed from the building at the same time, with multiple medical decisions being made in a very short amount of time.
“We were lucky in that we are about half a block away from one of Hatzalah’s quarters so we had plenty of help at the outset,” said Villani. “FDNY, EMTs and paramedics, as well as Hatzalah volunteers triaged the rest of the patients.”
Many of the building’s residents were trapped in their apartments by the fire. Brooklyn Paper (bit.ly/3WCkDT7) reported that firefighters saw faces at every window as they pulled off security gates in their efforts to evacuate residents.
FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief John Sarrocco described the rescue effort as an arduous one, noting that both portable and tower ladders were used to evacuate residents from the building.
The FDNY is continuing to investigate the cause of the fire.
So she is a sister in law of the satmar rebbes? BDE may no more yidden suffer.
So sad! It appeared to me that people were trapped because those gates did not open.