Horrific tragedy strikes Flatbush community

                                        'וכל בית ישראל יבכו את השריפה אשר שרף ה
The news spread right after shabbos as the Flatbush community has been plunged into mourning with a

horrific tragedy, as seven children of one family passed away R'L on Shabbos a little past midnight in a fire sparked by a hot plate or a blech. The Seven children Aleihem hashalom were from the Sassoon family of the close knit Syrian chalabi community. The family moved to NY about 2 years ago from Eretz Yisrael where they lived previously in the Har Nof and Ramat Eshkol neighborhoods of Yerushalayim. The family hails from the  famous Sassoon family, also known as "the Rothschilds of the East" due to their supreme past wealth, is a famous family of Iraqi Jewish descent and international renown. It was based in Baghdad, Iraq, before moving to Mumbai (Bombay at time of their arrival), India and then spreading to China, England, and other countries. It is said that the family descended from the famous Ibn Shoshans.
Four boys and three girls - siblings ranging in age from 5 to 16 - were in their bedrooms when the hot plate apparently malfunctioned in the kitchen, starting a fire that swept up from the first floor shortly after midnight, New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.
The niftarim are Eliane Sassoon, 16, Rivkah Sassoon, 11, Sarah Sassoon, 6, Dovid Sassoon, 12, Yehoshua Sassoon, 10, Moshe Sassoon, 8, and Yaakov Sassoon, 5.
The mother of the children, 45-year-old Mrs. Gayle Sassoon, and her 14-year-old daughter, Avigayil, survived. All are asked to daven and say Tehillim for Tziporah bas Avigayil and Avigayil bas Tziporah, who both jumped from second-floor widows to escape and were treated for burns and smoke inhalation. Levaya will take place Sunday afternoon, information to be announced. Kevura will be in Eretz Yisrael. The father was away for shabbos at a Kiruv conference in Manhattan where authorities tracked him down and broke the news to him shabbos morning. Friends & neighbors of  family  gathered Motzei shabbos to hear how to cope with the tragedy.
May Hashem give the family the strength to get through this most difficult tzara.