The first fire truck arrived at 2:47 am. By then, the inferno had shattered the windows and plumed the air with smoke. The stench of burning wood filled the neighborhood. When firefighters subdued the blaze enough to get in the front door, they found the small body of a child. Djiby’s daughter Khadija had been two months shy of her second birthday. Farther in sprawled Djiby himself and his 23-year-old wife, Adja.
Next to Adja lay Djiby’s 25-year-old sister, Hassan. She’d only been living in the house for three months. Like Adja, she had dreamed of going back to school to study nursing. She died with her arms still wrapped around her 7-month-old daughter, Hawa Beye. Medical examiners would later conclude that all five died of smoke inhalation, airways coated in black soot, internal organs and muscles burnished “cherry-red” from the heat.
Consider the people who were killed here also.