NY Post – February 18, 2015
by Natasha Velez
A four-year-old who’s already a budding young artist is fighting for his life in a Brooklyn hospital after being critically injured in an early morning fire while his parents are overseas on a religious pilgrimage, officials and neighbors said.
Little Bilal Elmaghraby and his three siblings were being watched by their grandparents in Bensonhurst when a fire began in the living room of their second-floor apartment on 85th Street around 7:15 a.m., neighbors and officials said.
Firefighters burst into the building only about five minutes after the call came in – because they heard that children were trapped inside, sources said.
By the time they reached Bilal, he had suffered serious burns and smoke inhalation, and was rushed to Coney Island Hospital, sources added.
“He’s in bad shape but we think he’s going to survive,” a source told the Post.
The fire was out within 40 minutes.
Bilal’s Palestinian parents are on a religious pilgrimage in Saudia Arabia, neighbors and family friends said. They left three days ago and planned to stay away for two weeks, they added.
The tot takes after his mom, who is an art teacher, the children’s friends said.
“He is very creative,” said one little girl who lives next door and plays with the boy. Her mother did not want the child’s name published.
“There are a lot of drawings in his room,” the young play-pal added. “He loves art.”
Fire investigators are still looking into the cause of the blaze but it appears to have started in the living room and it was contained to the top floor of the two-story building, officials said.
Four other people were taken to area hospitals for treatment of minor injuries.
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