The day after his 12th birthday, Muhammad Drammeh died along with his mother and two of his sisters.
Muhammad Drammeh’s 12th birthday was on Saturday. He celebrated with his brother and sisters at an indoor trampoline park in Queens. The day after, Muhammad, his mother and two of his sisters were killed in a fire at a Bronx apartment building that left at least 17 people dead. His 16-year-old brother remains hospitalized, in stable condition. His father and another sister, Fatima Drammeh, also survived. Neither was home when fire-fueled smoke swept through the building. On Tuesday, Ms. Drammeh,23, recalled her final moments with her mother and one of her younger sisters, before she left the apartment for Muhammad’s birthday party. “I just said bye to them, because we were leaving the house,” she said. “I didn’t think it would be my last time seeing them.” Her father, Ishak Drammeh,57, had been away on business in Columbus, Ohio, when the fire killed his son, his wife, Fatoumata Drammeh,50, and two daughters, Fatoumala,21, and Nyumaaisha, who went by Aisha,19. He confirmed their deaths. Mr. Drammeh stood outside the mosque where he worships, Masjid-Ur-Rahmah, on Webster Avenue, on Tuesday and remembered his children. Fatoutmala, he said, was about to graduate from a college in Buffalo, where she was studying international economics. “She was a very good girl,” he said. “Muhammad was a good boy too. Nyumaaisha was a good girl, she finished her high school; next month she is supposed to start her college.” As he spoke, Mr. Drammeh was embraced by community members and a police detective. He had barely eaten or slept in three days, he said, and had not yet seen their bodies. “It’s not easy, your own child,” Mr. Drammeh said. “Now they just go; you never see them again until the day of judgment.” Like many of the fire victims, the family had West African roots: Mr. Drammeh is from Gambia; the couple married in 1994. Musa Kabba, the imam of the mosque, where most congregants are Gambian, said that about a dozen of his members may have died in the fire. The authorities have not released the names of any of the victims. The medical examiner’s office planned to make final identifications of the victims on Tuesday.
