Brooklyn, N.Y. – Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke released the following statement about the fire at a single-family home in the Midwood community of Brooklyn early this morning to which more than one hundred firefighters responded, where seven children between the ages of five and fifteen were killed and only a sister and their mother have survived the tragic fire, with very serious injuries.

I have been informed that the mother and her fourteen-year-old daughter are both in critical condition, at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx and Staten Island University Hospital, respectively. Police are now trying to contact the husband and father, who was away attending a conference when the fire occurred.

“The prayers of our community are now with the victims of this terrible tragedy and with their surviving family. On behalf of the people of the Ninth Congressional District of New York, I want to share my condolences with the parents who have suffered the tremendous and unspeakable loss of seven of their children, the child who has lost seven of her siblings, and with the community that has lost an irreplaceable part of itself. We now have a responsibility to demonstrate our sympathy and compassion by working with this family that has sustained such a terrible loss of family members and has been physically displaced from their fire-ravaged home to find them a permanent home as well as to provide all possible support and assistance to the victims as we continue to pray for their full recovery from the injuries sustained in this fire,” said Congresswoman Clarke, who as a member of the New York City Council was Chairwoman of the Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services. “I would also like to commend the courageous firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical professionals who responded to the call of duty, potentially saving the lives of a mother and her daughter.”

U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke is a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Ethics, and Homeland Security, where she is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. She represents many neighborhoods in central and southern Brooklyn, NY which include Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Gerritsen Beach, Madison, Midwood, parts of Park Slope and Flatlands, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Sheepshead Bay, and Windsor Terrace.