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2 dads shoulder burdens of grief
They plan for nine burials and pray there will be no more victims of awful blaze
BY AUSTIN FENNER, MIKE JACCARINO and TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
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Mamadou Soumare
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Moussa Magassa
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Shoulder to shoulder, the two fathers sat together in a Bronx mosque - enduring a shared grief, making plans to bury nine loved ones, praying there would be no need for even more small coffins.
As Moussa Magassa and Mamadou Soumare received condolences, two of their children who survived Wednesday's inferno were fighting for their lives yesterday.
"I can't understand why God does these things," Mayor Bloomberg told them and the rest of the congregation at the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx.
Later, the mayor told reporters that both men "came to the United States to pursue the great American dream, and now find themselves sharing a great American tragedy with us."
Magassa, the owner of the Woodycrest Ave. home, had flown all night from his homeland of Mali in West Africa to be reunited with the remnants of his family.
There was exhaustion and heartache in his eyes as he arrived at Kennedy Airport and then shuttled between the two hospitals where survivors were being treated.
A prominent member of New York's Malian community, Magassa lost five children by one wife in the blaze - the deadliest in the city in 17 years.
His second wife, Aisse, was at Lincoln Hospital with broken legs after jumping out a window, and their 5-year-old daughter, Hatouma, was in stable condition there.
At Jacobi Medical Center, Magassa's 7-year-old daughter, Kadiatou, who had been flung out the window by Aisse, remained in critical condition for a second day.
Soumare, a taxi driver whose family lived on the top floor of the home, lost his wife and three of his children. A fourth, 7-year-old daughter Asime, was at Lincoln, where her condition suddenly worsened to critical yesterday.
Between hospital vigils, the two fathers spent part of the morning at their mosque, sitting in a tight circle of chairs in the center of the room, surrounded by a sea of barefoot Muslim men on a green carpet.
"We are all crying for you," Imam Musa Kabba said. "New York City is crying for you. America is crying for you."
It was a poignant scene, one that will be replaced by the heartrending sight of nine coffins on Monday when a funeral for all the victims is held at the mosque.
Afterward, the Magassa children will be buried in New Jersey, while Soumare plans to fly the bodies of his wife and children home to Mali.
The Yankees, whose stadium overshadows the Highbridge neighborhood shaken by the tragedy, have offered to pay for all the arrangements.
The fire was sparked by a space heater in the garden apartment, where Naralee Magassa, 22, was asleep with a 5-year-old.
A bad situation was then compounded by a series of mistakes: no batteries in smoke detectors, doors left open as the fire spread and a delay in calling 911.
In fact, Naralee Magassa tried to douse the flames with pots of water from the kitchen before she alerted anyone that there was a fire, officials said.
"The sad fact is that this fire, like so many others, was preventable," Bloomberg said.
Because the doors were left open, wind fueled the flames and allowed them to flare up a wooden staircase, devouring the house floor by floor in a matter of minutes.
Some residents managed to escape, a few were rescued by firefighters and two children were tossed out the window by Aisse Magassa before she leaped.
But the uncontrolled smoke doomed the rest.
The medical examiner identified the five Magassa children as Bilaly, 1; his sister, Diaba, 3; brother Abudubucary, 5; Bahamadou, 8; and Bandiougou, 11.
In Soumare's family, the victims were identified as his wife, Mariam, 42; 3-year-old son, Djibril; and 6-month-old boy and girl twins Sise and Harouna.
The toll was so devastating that firefighters who responded to the scene underwent counseling.
"It was one of the most difficult types of fire a firefighter has to battle," said FDNY Chief of Department Salvatore Cassano.
"It's very late at night, advanced fire at arrival, people are screaming that their children are trapped. Your juices are flowing. You pick someone up, and you think of your own children."
A stream of mourners passed by the gutted, charred home, which stood like an open wound on Woodycrest Ave.
Those who once called it home were gathered at another house across the street, where friends and strangers brought cash, clothing, furniture, prayers and memories.
Doreen Nixon, 51, a teacher at the preschool that Djibril Soumare attended, recalled how the toddler, so full of love, had clung to her leg the day before the fire.
"He would run off the bus every day and hug me," she said. "He just stole my heart."
This iz such a tragady , the only person could tell yuh how they are feeling iz these two men, what can any human been say to them that would heal their broken heart.
afenner@nydailynews.com
With Alison Gendar, Jonathan Lemire, Peter Kadushin, Christina Boyle
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