Sunday’s deadly Bronx blaze was likely caused by faulty electrical wiring — with investigators finding a melted computer still plugged into the wall of the room where the fire started, law-enforcement sources told The Post on Monday.
The Quimby Avenue fire, which killed three little kids and a young dad, remains under investigation, but preliminary findings point to an electrical malfunction, sources said.
There were working smoke detectors in the home, the FDNY said.
City building records show no prior violations at the building, although firefighters found an illegal basement apartment while battling the blaze. Sources have said the deadly blaze did not originate there.
The building had been largely exempt from city inspection requirements because it is listed as a one-family home, so inspectors would not have been apt to to check for a basement unit.
The home’s converted basement included a full kitchen and bathroom fixtures that were all built without city building permits, DOB records show.
The fire also spread to an adjoining building, causing damage that included holes in the roof, forcing the city to issue a vacate order for that structure as well.
Killed in the fire were Ahmed Saleh, 22, his 10-month-old daughter, Barah, and his younger brothers, 12-year-old Mohamed Waleed Ahmed and Kalheed Ben Saleh, 10.
Horrified neighbors in the Castle Hill neighborhood recalled the trapped boys screaming for help as the flames consumed the building.
“You could see their little hands banging on the windows,” neighbor Merlyn Persaue sobbed Sunday. “They were screaming, ‘Hey Allah! Hey Allah!’ which means, ‘Help me, God! Help me God!’
“I see the hands in the windows, and then the flames wash up on the windows,” said Persaue, 60. “And then there was no more sound.”
Another neighbor said he was able to help rescue the mother of the dead boys, as well as her only surviving son.
“They were screaming,” the neighbor said of the woman and one of her sons. “They were crying.”
Additional reporting by Tina Moore
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