Community rallies after fire; Grief-stricken Mali immigrants plan funerals for 9 victims of Bronx blaze.(Main)

Byline: VERENA DOBNIK - Associated Press

NEW YORK - Once their families shared a house and a life, their kids growing up and happily playing side by side. On Friday, the two shattered fathers who lost eight children in a blaze at their now-gutted Bronx home reunited in grief to plan funerals as members of the Mali immigrant community rallied to their aid.

A funeral for all nine victims was set for Monday in the Bronx, where they died in the city's worst blaze since 1990. Five victims will be buried in New Jersey on Monday, and the other four will be flown to Mali for burial.

Moussa Magassa and his half-brother, Mamadou Soumare, met with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Abdoulaye Diop, Mali's ambassador to the United States, for a prayer service.

Magassa had just flown back to New York from a business trip to his homeland - a visit that was interrupted by word of the heartbreaking blaze. Soumare had watched helplessly from the street early Thursday as the flames - started by a space heater in the basement - consumed his family, killing his spouse and three children.

The closely knit community of Mali immigrants was providing emotional and financial support for the families, turning out for Friday's prayer service and collecting more than $21,000 in assistance, said Cheick Sidi Darrah, Mali U.N. ambassador.

A taxi driver group was also collect ing donations, and New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner volunteered to cover the cost of the funerals.

The condition of a 5-year-old girl slipped Friday from stable to critical at Lincoln Hospital, where a 7-year-old girl and a 24-year-old woman who survived the blaze were both listed in stable condition. A 7-year-old girl survivor remained in critical condition Friday at Jacobi Medical Center.

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PHOTOS BY JASON DeCROW/ASSOCIATED PRESS PAOLA SUAREZ, 10, a classmate of some of the nine victims of a fatal fire in the Bronx, visits a memorial Friday near the scene of the blaze. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has offered to pay for the funerals. CHILDREN GATHER Friday at the scene of the fire, which was caused by a space heater in the cellar of the building that was home to two families.