N.Y. / REGION

Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn Rush to Buy Smoke Detectors Before Sabbath

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A memorial at the Sassoon family home in Midwood, Brooklyn, where seven children died in a fire caused by a hot plate that was left on overnight for the Sabbath.Victor J. Blue for The New York Times 
The Buzz, an electronics store in Borough Park, Brooklyn, had by Wednesday sold out of its supply of smoke detectors three times and then started a charity giveaway to distribute hundreds more.
Simon Abeckaser, 52, a father of four in Midwood, Brooklyn, led his family through a full-house fire drill and was making plans to place six rope ladders, as well as hammers, at windows on the second floor.
Meanwhile, Hinda Levy, a mother of three who lives a few doors down, said she was trying to focus on the mantra that had sustained her all week: “God took them back; he runs the world,” she said. “And they say if we cry, God is with us.”
In the aftermath of a fire in Midwood that killed seven children on Saturday, grief and shock have consumed the large Orthodox Jewish community of New York, as it has struggled to comprehend how its cherished weekly ritual of Sabbath observance was transformed into unspeakable tragedy when a family’s hot plate, left on overnight, caught fire.
But amid the sleepless nights and impossible-to-answer questions about God’s purposes, there was also a sense of urgency, because on Friday, it will be the Sabbath again, and tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews will do exactly what Gayle Sassoon, the children’s mother, did in the hours before the fire. Before sundown, they will turn on a stove burner, a crockpot or an electric hot plate and leave it on overnight, so they can provide their family with a warm Sabbath meal without violating ancient prohibitions on lighting a flame on the day of rest.
Shopping at the Buzz near hot plates similar to the one blamed for the fatal fire.Victor J. Blue for The New York Times 
“Basically, everyone is trying to figure out what should they do this Sabbath,” said Edgar Gluck, a prominent rabbi in Borough Park who has been helping to counsel people. He personally uses a hot plate, he said, but places it on a granite countertop, next to a stainless-steel sink, and feels that it is safe.
The need for working smoke detectors was one indisputable conclusion the community has drawn from the fire, residents said. The Sassoon family did not have working smoke detectors on the main floors of its home. As soon as the Sabbath ended Saturday night, Orthodox Jews began to go through their homes, checking to see if their smoke detectors were in working condition.
Rachel Fried, an Orthodox mother and optometrist, was among about 150 people who gathered for a lecture on fire safety at a Midwood public school on Tuesday. Free smoke detectors had been promised, and her husband had just discovered her family’s smoke detectors were 30 years old and not working.
“I have three little kids, so we are making sure to be careful,” Ms. Fried said.
Mr. Abeckaser, the father who led his family through the fire drill on Tuesday, said he tried to prepare them for different situations: what to do if a fire starts in the kitchen, in the basement, in the middle of the night.
He replaced the batteries in his smoke detectors on Sunday and was planning to put fire extinguishers in every room, plus thick towels that can be shoved at the base of doors to keep out smoke.
“The first thing you do is get out — don’t wait for Mommy, don’t wait for Daddy, get out,” he said he told his children, who range in age from 9 to 15. Of the eight Sassoon children, only one had jumped out the window and survived; the rest died in their rooms. Their mother also survived by leaping from the second floor.
Throughout the community, mothers and children, in particular, were reporting having trouble sleeping, said Dr. Norman Blumenthal, who leads trauma response for OHEL Children’s Home and Family services and has been helping community members cope.
“A lot of mothers are identifying very strongly with Mrs. Sassoon, and are having some very intense post-traumatic reactions,” Dr. Blumenthal said. “Many claim to be haunted by hearing the children crying for their mother from their burning house, or when the mother came to the neighbor and said, ‘My babies, my babies.’ They claim to hear that refrain in their brains.”
Shmuley Kresch, the manager of the Buzz electronics store, said his 6-year-old daughter was hysterical and woke up several times Saturday night, after hearing about the fire and then learning that her own family’s smoke detectors were not working. When the store opened on Sunday, Mr. Kresch got replacements.
Families getting free smoke detectors from Assemblyman Dov Hikind. Spencer Platt/Getty Images 
At his store, customers were going in to ask if the hot plates — smooth metal devices large enough to fit several pots of food on top — were “UL-rated,” a safety designation provided by Underwriters Laboratories.
Some people said they would now put their devices on timers set before Sabbath starts, so they could turn off overnight and back on in the morning. Rabbinic authorities have determined that timers can be used without breaking Sabbath rules.
Deena Rahmani, 36, an Orthodox mother of six children in Woodmere, on Long Island, said she bought a timer this week, as well as five new smoke alarms. But her father, Dov Hikind, the New York State assemblyman, was still concerned.
He urged her to switch to his preferred method for keeping food warm: a blech, or thin metal sheet that covers the burners of a stove while one or two burners remain on low overnight. Many people consider the blech safer, but fire officials warn that keeping a burner on overnight is also unsafe. Ms. Rahmani decided against switching.
“I’m going to be more careful, making sure the wire is not hot or eroding,” she said. “And I’ll take it to an appliance store and find out if the hot plate is considered the one most safe.”
In a community that is used to dealing with communal tragedy — from European pogroms to the Holocaust — there was also a strong sense that while it might be hard to fathom in times of tragedy, God has a plan.
“There is only one thing we can hold on to in these dark days,” Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser said, addressing the fire safety gathering on Tuesday. “We can hold on to the faith that binds us all together.”
But that was easier said than done for Ms. Levy, the mother of three, who lives just down the block from the Sassoon family.
After the fire, Ms. Levy, 45, collapsed on the couch in her living room and sobbed, she recounted from her home on Wednesday. She held a prayer book in her hands but lacked the strength to open it.
“I felt, ‘It’s not fair,’ but I’m not supposed to,” she said. “We’re not allowed to ask why, why did these children die.”
Eventually, however, she opened the book and said a prayer for Ms. Sassoon and her surviving daughter, she recalled. And this Sabbath, she said, will be all about the primacy of her faith over her doubts.
Joseph Berger contributed reporting.