SW Philadelphia Mother Saves Herself & Leaves 4 Kids To Die In A Fire! (Video)
by Tj Sotomayor July 11, 2014 31 commentsHow Could This Happen?
By: Tommy “Tj” Sotomayor
Four children died early Saturday in a fast-moving fire that burned through a number of southwest Philadelphia row houses and displaced more than 40 people, according to several reports.
The dead children were not immediately identified, but officials told several reporters that they were in one home and included twin 4-year-old girls, a 4-year-old boy and a 1-month-old boy. Fire department officials said the blaze destroyed eight homes and engulfed at least 10 houses. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire, and a shelter for those displaced has been set up.
“This is a tragic, tragic day for the city of Philadelphia. Tragic,” Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer told reporters. “We lost four children today. And I want everybody to understand that fire is everyone’s fight. Not just the fire department. It’s everyone’s fight.”
The fire started at about 2:40 a.m. Saturday, and was brought under control by about 4 a.m. The four children were pronounced dead at 5:10 a.m., according to Philly.com. Four people, including a woman and two 11-year-old girls, suffered minor injuries escaping the flames, the website said.
The mother of the twin girls killed in the fire managed to jump from a window and was treated for smoke inhalation, according to WPVI. She was taking care of the other children who died in the fire, the station reported.
A family friend, Jaka Kaba, told WPVI, “She’s a mother everybody takes their children to her to take care of. There is nothing we can do. God knows why this happened.”
The Red Cross, which is helping victims, says 42 people have been displaced by the fire, according to reports.
About 100 firefighters in 28 firetrucks responded to the blaze, Philly.com reports.
Philly.com also spoke with a man who told the website he saw the start of the blaze, called 911 and tried to get people out of their homes.
Jeff Boone, 27, told the website he was playing games on his PlayStation with his niece sleeping upstairs when he stepped outside his door and saw a couch on fire on the porch of a house about five doors down.
“As I seen the couch on fire, I ran back in my crib, grabbed my fire extinguisher,” he said. But the extinguisher didn’t work and the flames spread from porch to porch quickly.
“It looked like someone had a flamethrower and just shot it all across,” he told Philly.com. “I was running, screaming, telling everybody, ‘Get up! Yo, get yo! Go!'”
Other witnesses described their experiences.
“I was sleeping and I had seen the fire,” Keisha Burgess, who lives on the block where the fire spread, told WCAU. “I just woke up and grabbed my kids. The fire was just spreading and it was just everywhere, house to house. I had to wake up, bring my kids out and just get out.”
The television station also spoke with Karon Johnson, another resident and witness, who says the fire jumped from porch to porch, igniting everything in its path.
“It spread out from left to right so quickly,” Johnson told WCAU. “When it all happened, I didn’t know but somehow I hoped that everybody was OK and got out of the house. I didn’t know who was safe and who wasn’t.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
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31 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationThe kids should be in the hospital with broken bones instead instead of being in a mortuary laying in a casket. Damn shame the mom lived…so she can make more kids.
The news report said she saved a lot of children,If this is true im gonna have to go against you on this one dawg
To Randall…That is not true. That was confirmed by the people who lived there.
Okay sorry i was goin by the lady that said it was a bunch of kids in the house on the news report.Tommy is always spot on i shouldnt of doubted him
How do we know that this isn’t true??? I too, heard the news reporter state that the woman helped others….and i didn’t hear otherwise…outside of Tommy’s thoughts. Where did you find out that it was confirmed???Because we haven’t heard the interviews yet…to my knowledge..the video isn’t even posted yet. :-/
It is true. It was confirmed by the people who live there, because it is true. She saved some of her kids, just not all of them
Tommy, great commentary..looking forward to the video.
I myself feel the mother could have done more in order to prevent any deaths, but until we hear her accounts of the story, it’s going to be hard to say for sure
If the woman save a bunch of people why didnt she save those babies? Wouldn’t you think she would clear out the house she was in before she went door to door saving others? And if she had saved a bunch of other people,wouldn’t you think she would have more injuries?
Tommy I have to disagree with you as did Randall before he back pedaled. I am a Liberian-American and feel that this story hits home, which is why I did my research as well as called family members who live in Philly. The mother who jumped from the window (Dewen Bowah, 41) was in the house with seven children when the fire broke out. As one of the residents stated, Dewen was known to baby sit the neighborhood children. The two boys who perished (Taj and Patrick) were not her children, she was babysitting for a 21 year old Sierra Leonean woman (Elenore Jacque) who wasn’t home at the time of the fire. Dewen was able throw her three other daughters Naomi Bowah, Julie Bowah and Julisa Bowah out of the window before jumping herself. From what I’ve heard from family friends she tried to reach her twins Maria and Marialla as well as Taj and Patrick but the fire had spread too fast. What some of you don’t know is that this is not the first time that community has experienced death by fire, back in 2008 seven Liberians died in a house fire. Some believe the fire department is to blame due to slow response times. I don’t live there but damn the fire station is right acorss the street…really? Tommy I know you were there when emotions and tensions were high but Dewen did the best she could to save all the children in that house. I do still appreciate your commentary, however I think your judgment of Dewen was premature. Thanks for covering this story Tommy much love and respect.
Where is your source of proof she threw the other children to safety first? I mean, not to discredit you, but Tommy was actually there and interviewed many . So, do he omit this information or did the others present to provide their own eyewitness fail to mention the three that were saved? I don’t see judgment from him and, no, I’m not a blind sheep to his cause. But, based on the information provided from the sources available and the fact that your source is anonymous until proven accurate, I do not see how his QUESTIONS of why this occurred this way is actually a judgment.
Vladamir, the news piece shown says she rescued others but were unable to save those 4 that died in the fire. They didn’t elaborate on who or how many she saved but they did in fact say that she saved other children from the home before she escaped.
I still need more info. How did she help the other three, where were the other three and how old were they? Did she help by screaming to the three that survived? Could she have multitasked? Again, not discrediting. I just need more info.
So you need more info on this but because Tommy was there you automatically believe everything that he is saying? I’m just a bit confused on that. Ras T, gave plenty of information, and then Knottiehottie314 filled it in some more. Yet, because they’re not Tommy you need more. The whole time stating that you are not discrediting them. It certainly seems that way.
Thanks PrettyRed26. I did reply to Vladimir’s inquiry however, for some reason it didn’t post. My sources are NBC Philadelphia and family members who live in Philly. Anyone who truly wanted to know more information about this story could’ve searched it online, then again who cares right?
Is anyone going to blame the person who lit the “porch” couch on fire?. why does it have to be the fire departments fault?
There was a fire here in Baltimore the parents got out plus 1 more adult they were in the basement of the row house, but the parents 3 children were upstairs 3rd floor when a fire started. The adults couldn’t reach the 3rd floor to much fire and smoke. I forgot the ages of the children but the older boy I think 8 or 9 grab his 5 or 4 yr old sister and toss her out the window and a neighbor caught her, he ran back to get his 2 or 3 yr old brother never to be seen again….He was hailed as a Hero. Tommy check the story out and compare it with this 1.
this is a fire correct a force of element that has to be controlled correct I have witness the movement of fire in a building and it is a sight that leaves a lasting impression I can’t say what the heart and body will do when faced with this force but to save anyone that is near is sometimes the only action one can make
Thats bad news.
Its horrible news.
But I hope thats not what most Black people would do.
We’re a brave people when we want to be,
and I’d die in the fire.
I believe there can be preventative measures to these fires. A couch on the front porch that caught fire? There is nothing thus far on how the fire on the couch was initiated. I know it was mentioned that people were playing with fire works – very wise. Looking at the structure of the homes (wood) and their close proximity to each other, how can anyone consider playing with fire works! That’s criminal negligence! I know of fires that took place in homes because geniuses lit candles and left them unattended, used space heaters too close to fabric and poured gasoline in a kerosene heater. I know of a woman who started a fire by cooking food with a lot of grease, some of it got caught by the flames which flared and hit a curtain by a window – a curtain in a kitchen near by the stove! Negligence!
Well If she was in the same room shame on her.. now if she wasnt in the same room.. bcuz she left to get the other kids.. maybe I disagree with tommy.. But Tommy did say her brother-in-law was outside waitin on the kids to be tossed out the window.. or maybe they were already engulf with flames.. But I say I can’t agree or disagree with him on this one.. need more info
yep another said moment in black history…i would have gave my life to save my kids or kids that were in my home.. animals take better care of their young lets make changes an demand better of each other…
I wouldn’t pass judgement until you have been placed in the same situation. If she saved three out of the seven children during that situation, she probably did all she could do. The real question is why were so many children left with only one adult? Just like a daycare, there should be at least one adult per three to four children. That is too much responsibility for one person to have to handle. Especially during this tragic event. She needed more help to save seven children.
Anyone who has been in a house fire knows that time is critical. You only have a few minutes before the fire spreads.
I have to eliminate judgement on the mother until Tommy updates us on her response to what happened. In regards to people claiming that “the fire department took too long”, looking at the fire damage and how it suggests that those homes are tender boxes, I don’t necessarily believe that the fire department was negligible. The one thing that I do hold the fire department accountable for is educating the people about the high risk of fire and the higher risk of a fire spreading through those structures if a fire broke out. Also, they should have been educated and made to be prepared by having smoke detecters and fire extinguishers in several places in the homes.
A little bit of prevention and preparedness may have easily saved those children. People have got to stop throwing blame on the system, and learn to use their own brains and good common sense to protect themselves and their children from situations like this. I’m not saying that the system doesn’t sometimes fail us, it does. But if we sit around and wait for things to turn tragically bad, so that we can see if the system can come save us, we may only end up with a self fulfilling prophecy.
If other people knew that there were more kids in the house, why didn’t someone help the mother? All of the blame doesn’t belong on her. -not excusing her. I don’t know all of the facts, but what about the people that sat by and watched? There’s enough to go around in this case. So sorry for those babies. 🙁
If she could not safely provide for these children, should have not been that greedy and agree to watch them. Not only did her own children parish in the fire, but someone else lost an innocent child because of her. She is a disgrace to be even labeled a mother. My twins were 5 when we lost our home to a fire and their safety was my first and only priority. I would 100% sacrifice my own life to make sure they survived. For some reason i can’t see the other video of witness statements but i wouldn’t be surprised if they are staying anything to make this piece of trash look good..because if she tried all she could than she would either be dead or in the hospital with multiple burns.
If a man had done this Nancy Grace would be screaming for charges against the father and it would be main stream mews about how shitty the father was for saving his ass and not his children, there is no excuse for her not throwing those children out the window lf she had the sense to save her own ass, she might have done this on purpose because like cops, women aren’t accountable for their actions.
Thats literally an 8 foot drop…come on dog. No excuse for that one Keisha.
Row homes in Philly have what you call “party walls,” which are walls that keep a fire from spreading from house to house. However, being that the fire allegedly started on the front porch on a living room sofa that’s supposed to be in the living room, not outside on the porch, there was no barrier of a party wall. So the fire spread rapidly. This is still suspicious. Somebody knows something but they’re not speaking up.
Dayum, she saved 4 but left 3, or … dayum, how many keeyuds does that bitch have ?
I can’t speak for her but on February 17 my life changed forever we. Had a house fire & it was me and 5 of my 6 children at home & i was the last 1 out the house. This goes back to what you said about motherly instances mostly definitely kicked in immediately. Praying for our babies
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