By Kerry Burke, Elizabeth Keogh
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A 5-year-old boy was killed Wednesday in a Bronx house fire that a relative described as “a terrible tragedy,” days after a 7-year-old girl lost her life in a blaze in Staten Island, police said.
Firefighters were called to the building on Barnes Ave. near E. 226th St. in Wakefield just after 5:20 p.m., cops said.
Inside, the smoke-eaters discovered the boy in the basement of the home.
He was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center but could not be saved, police said.
The boy’s 83-year-old great-grandmother and 26-year-old mother were transported to the same hospital in stable condition, police and relatives said.
Mourners on Wednesday night gathered outside the home where four generations of the Lewis family had lived.
A relative gave the young victim’s first name as Cashmere, adding through tears: “Just 5 years old, the poor little baby.”
“They’re a hardworking family who kept a good home,” said another family member who did not want to be named. “It’s a terrible tragedy. His mother is going through a lot right now.”
“This was a beautiful little boy, so handsome,” that relative added. “Just a beautiful little boy.”
The tragic death came two days after Rory DeCristoforo, 7, was killed in a Staten Island house fire.
She and her family had recently moved into the home on Brookside Ave. and Alpine Court, where firefighters worked Monday to extinguish flames and smoke that tore through the house.
The girl was found in a bedroom of the home and was rushed to Richmond University Medical Center, where she died.
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