By Stephen McKinley
A fire gutted a house in the largely Irish-American Rockaways early Sunday morning, killing a 2-year-old girl and severely injuring her parents, Matthew and Cynthia Maschi O’Brien, and their youngest child, a 2-month-old daughter.
The girl, Melissa, was pronounced dead at the New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens. Cynthia O’Brien, 38, and her husband Matthew, 37, and six of their eight children, were taken to Nassau County Emergency Center for treatment.
The parents and the youngest daughter remain in critical but stable condition in hospital.
The fire broke out at 228 Beach 87th St. at around 1 a.m. and firefighters arrived on the scene by 1:30.
The two-alarm fire ultimately required 106 fire fighters to put it out.
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Eyewitnesses described a harrowing scene as the mother, unaware of her own injuries, ran up and down the sidewalk trying to locate the girl.
“My baby Melissa! I can’t find my baby,” she cried.
Initial fire investigators’ reports suggested that the fire had been caused by a space heater. Relatives said that hot water and heat had been turned off in recent weeks.
The O’Briens and 4-week-old Ashley were in critical condition at Nassau University Medical Center. Other siblings were treated for smoke inhalation.
O’Brien, according to relatives, was the nephew of a firefighter killed on Sept. 11. He worked as a construction worker, and when the fire broke out, he crawled through the house looking for his children, suffering extensive burns as he searched.
Neighbors said that the O’Brien’s twin sons, Besjan and Artan Maloku, 14, ran out of the burning building in their underwear.
Firefighters found Melissa’s body on the first floor, close to the space heater’s location. She was rushed to hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.
“She was such a happy baby,” Maschi O’Brien’s eldest son, James, 16, speaking to reporters about his sister, Melissa.
“She was really in love with her newborn sister. Everything was about Ashley to her,” he added.
Heat and hot water had been turned off in the building because, neighbors said, the O’Briens had not been paying their rent. They had been given 4 months to leave.
Engines 265, 266, Ladder 121 and Ladder 137 were among the fire trucks that responded, and the battalion chief was from Battalion 47.