In a heartbreaking turn of events, the parents of 6-year-old twins have announced the tragic passing of their children, who succumbed to injuries sustained in a devastating fire that swept through their Bronx apartment building. The fire, which occurred last week, also claimed the life of their 1-year-old brother.
Kwesi Harris, the father of the children, shared the grievous news from a funeral home on Monday. His twins, Isis and Oseases Parks-Harris, tragically died from the injuries they endured in the blaze that erupted in their Bainbridge Avenue home the previous Monday.
Their youngest sibling, 1-year-old Liam Parks-Harris, was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after the fire broke out on the building’s second floor. Witnesses described the harrowing scene of firefighters carrying the soot-covered infant out of the building.
Reflecting on the tragic day, Harris, 50, recounted his final moments with his son. “I remember kissing my boy and saying goodbye to my family before heading to work,” he shared somberly.
“My wife had already prepared lunch by 12:35. I picked up my meal at 1, kissed my son, and told him I was going to work,” Harris recalled during a phone interview. “Just after 3, I got a call from my wife saying the building was on fire. My first thought was, ‘Where are my children?’ I immediately drove from Brooklyn,” he recounted, his voice heavy with emotion.
“At 3 something, she called in and tell me the building on fire. The first thing that comes to my head … where’s my f—king children? I drove right away from Brooklyn,” he added.
The heartbroken father said his wife had to be held back from running into the fire to collect her children.
“[My wife] had wanted to run in the fire. My friend… told me yesterday….’If I did not hold back your wife, she did not care about fire. She wanted to go in the fire and collect her children,’” Harris said.
“I say, my brother, thank God that you hold her back. I would be burying my f–king children and my wife right now today.”
“She was holding Liam at the hospital, the day of the fire, when I got there,” Harris said. “That’s a good mother.”
Harris said his best memories were exercising with his two sons and daughter and doing homework with them on the weekends.
“My best memory with them is when I’m exercising, they want to exercise with me. I was in the army for 10 years in my country, so this is what I do,” he recalled.
“When I’m home Saturday and Sunday, those are the two days I spend with my children. I don’t go nowhere. I spend time with them, I do the homework with them. I ask them, ‘How was the week for them? How was their friend? Is anybody bullying them?’”
“This morning, I woke up in tears. The first thing that came to my head – where’s my Liam, where’s my Oseaes? Even Isis sometimes wants to come and join the exercise,” Harris said.
The fire at the Bronx building rapidly spread from the second floor to the staircase at the top of the building — sending residents fleeing to windows and searching for a way out, FDNY assistant chief of special operations Malcolm Moore said at the scene.
Two other civilians were hospitalized along with three firefighters, who suffered minor injuries, officials said.
Harris claimed that large rats in the building walls have bitten electrical wires, and that several e-bikes, known to cause fires, are typically stationed at a restaurant downstairs.
“These people need to investigate the fire,” he said.
The Fire Marshall’s office is continuing to investigate the cause of the blaze, according to the FDNY.
