Twin 6-year-old siblings critically injured in a Bronx fire where their 1-year-old brother perished last week have died, the Daily News has learned.
The two children, a boy and a girl, died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, their father said Monday.
FDNY officials also confirmed the deaths.
“They died from smoke inhalation. I’m at the funeral home now,” a heartbroken Kwesi Harris told The News. “They have been in the hospital since the incident.”
“Same case with Liam,” he said somberly about their death.
The two children had been in critical condition and on respirators since the May 11 fire.
Despite the grim prognosis they were given, Harris told The News last week he was praying for Isis and Oseaes Parks-Harris’ recovery.
“I’m just being hopeful and praying,” he said. “Their hearts are beating. But the brain cannot go a certain amount of time without oxygen. The machine is giving them oxygen.”
“They’ve been doing a good job,” Harris, 50, said about the hospital staff caring for his children. “For a little while blood was not flowing so they’re doing what they can to keep it flowing.”
Along with his twins, first responders pulled Liam from the family’s second-floor apartment inside the five-story building on Bainbridge Ave. near E. 194th St. in Fordham after their apartment caught fire around 3:40 p.m.
Medics rushed the three children to St. Barnabas Hospital, where the baby was pronounced dead, cops said. The twins were later transferred the New York-Presbyterian’s specialized burn unit in Manhattan.
One adult had serious injuries and another person suffered minor injuries, FDNY officials said. Three firefighters were also treated for less serious injuries at a local hospital.
“I’m a very strong guy but yesterday I couldn’t hold it back because that’s my son. I’m still in tears — tears running down my face right now,” Harris said about Liam’s death last week. “I’m going to miss him.”
The baby was Harris’ youngest of 14 children.
“When he seen me working out, he would go down and do a little pushup, trying to touch his hands. He was very active and happy child,” he said. “Liam is heartbreaking. I cry so much.”
FDNY Fire Marshals were still trying to determine what sparked the May 11 fire. The siblings brought the city’s fire death toll to 46 for the year — a 64% jump from the 28 deaths logged last year.
The Bainbridge Ave. was the second fatal city fire where the death toll kept mounting long after the fire was extinguished.
On Sunday, Annie De La Cruz became the fourth person to die after a raging May 4 fire on Dyckman St. near Broadway in Inwood that sparked by a carelessly flicked cigarette, her daughter, Karla Garcia said.
Her son, Lance Garcia, 25, died the day of the blaze, after he led De La Cruz, his sister and his grandfather out of their fourth-floor apartment to a fire escape two floors down, then turned around to help more people upstairs. A former fashion editor and her mother also died trying to escape the blaze.
