Thread: Donors to pick up funeral costs for kids killed in fire

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/cust ... &cset=true


Donors to pick up funeral costs for kids killed in fire

By Ofelia Casillas
Tribune staff reporter
Published September 6, 2006, 1:24 PM CDT

Donors have stepped forward to cover most of the $60,000 cost for the funerals of six children killed in a weekend apartment fire on Chicago's Far North Side, officials said today.

Also, the Mexican Consulate has offered to fly the youngsters' grandparents from Mexico for next week's services. [Do you think they will become illegals too??] Visitation is planned for 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Weinstein Funeral Home, 1300 W. Devon Ave., and services are to start at 11 a.m., Sept. 13, at St. Jerome Church, 1704 W. Lunt St., officials said.

Without electricity since May, the impoverished immigrant family had been using candles to light their third-floor Rogers Park apartment. About 12:20 a.m. Sunday, one of the candles started a blaze that quickly moved through the three-bedroom unit, killing six children ranging in age from 3 to 14.

The dead were identified as five Ramirez children—Vanessa, 14; Erick, 12; Suzette, 10; Idaly, 6, and Kevin, 3—and Escarlet Ramos, 3. The family was babysitting Escarlet when the fire broke out.

The Ramirez children's mother, Augusta Ramirez, 40, was injured in the blaze and taken to an area hospital, where she was treated and released. The father, Amado Ramirez, 42, was not home at the time of the fire, officials and family said.

Altogether, nine children were living in the apartment. Eight were the couple's offspring, fire officials said.

Most of the costs for the funeral services are being donated, said Gregory Lindeman, funeral director for Weinstein. Batesville Casket Co. has donated six caskets, while American Wilbert Vault Corp. has donated the grave vault, the cement box containing the coffins, Lindeman said. Also, Catholic Charities is paying for the gravestones and labor at Maryhill Catholic Cemetery in Niles.

The entire funeral could have cost the bereaved families $60,000, Lindeman said.

"It's nothing we look forward to," the funeral director said. "We have to be here to help family and friends get through this process. We have to help them. It's the most profound way we can put it. We just have to try to make this as seamless and as easy for them as we could."

John Fitzgerald, executive director of the Howard Area Community Center, which has been collecting donations for the Ramirezes, said, "The public support has been beyond [the family's] expectations."

"The family is overwhelmed by emotion and gratitude for the community support. They are delighted and yet they are still in deep mourning but they are grateful," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said officials with the Mexican Consulate in Chicago plan to fly the children's grandparents from Mexico for the two-family funeral for the six children.

"It is unusual," Fitzgerald said. "The fact that they all shared death together, the tragedy, has brought them together in this unique and special way."

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I found this on another website:

Just saw a report on local Fox news

The illegal alien father of the children killed in the fire told investigators that he was down the street playing music, but neighbors report seeing him on the back porch with his wife right before the fire started

Add the fact that the back door was LOCKED & the mother nor the neighbors could get in & something sure smells fishy

People said they couldn't understand why the mother was sitting on the back porch just crying with the door locked. They also say they can't believe how fast the whole place went up

Possible arson/murder?

Not meaning to sound insensitive..... but we take care of these illegals from their Cradles to their Graves, we never stop paying for them!

"It is unusual," Fitzgerald said. "The fact that they all shared death together, the tragedy, has brought them together in this unique and special way."

Gaaaa! What a weird and creepy thing to say.

Send the bill to Mexico. Why are we so eager to help illegals and don't want to lift a finger to help our own citizens