Oct 13, 2008 8:08 am US/Eastern
Another Fatal NY Fire Claims Man, Young Nephew
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
The twin tragedies are hard to believe.
Two fires result in seven lives lost, and all in just a matter of hours.
On Saturday, a family of five died in its Chelsea apartment.
Early Sunday morning, a man and his young nephew died in a building on Hancock Street in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.
It was just after midnight when flames began to devour the three-story house. Inside were a 12-year-old boy and his uncle.
Rescue crews tried to revive both victims, but they were pronounced dead at the hospital.
12-year-old Simeon Frasier Monderson and his 33-year-old uncle, Shawn, were discovered in the apartment that they had just moved into.
"His mother is in Guyana and his uncle is his guardian," Clive Monderson, Simeon's grandfather and Shawn's father, said.
Relatives of the two victims, in shock over the tragedy, arrived to the scene hoping the police had made a mistake – that somehow the school bus driver and his beloved nephew had survived.
Fire officials know the fire started here on the second floor, but the cause of the fire is still being investigated.
It's also unclear if there were any working smoke detectors inside the apartment.
The Monderson family is worried that they won't be able to afford the two funerals and are asking for the public's help.
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