Fairmount fire: New headstone honoring victims unveiled
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Thursday marked one year since a devastating fire ripped through a home in Philadelphia's Fairmount neighborhood. Twelve people died in that blaze, including nine children.
It was one of the city's deadliest fires.
"Not seeing them come out was really, really difficult," Fairmount resident Hannah Kohler said.
In Fairmount, the burned building remains with boarded-up windows.
Neighbors like Kohler walked by the small memorial of candles and stuffed animals to pay their respects.
"What made it a lot harder too was knowing they were just out here being kids so often," Kohler said.
One year later, a headstone honoring the four adults and eight children lost to the Fairmount fire stands at Chelten Hills Cemetery.
"We were all very impacted by it like so tremendously throughout our community," Jim Lee of the Lee Monument Foundation said. "We're the only African American-owned monument company so we felt it was our need to step in and for us to create our beautiful headstone."
With the help of community donations, the Lee Monument Foundation worked with impacted families for six months to make the headstone.
"Just getting little details from them to make sure I capture everything that the family pretty much wanted," Kohler said.
Many in the Fairmount community are still emotional while remembering the night of Jan. 5, 2022, when flames took over the rowhome on North 23rd Street.
"I feel like every year at this date," Fairmount resident Karly Blumberg said, "it's going to be difficult for the family and friends of those that are impacted."
Neighbors say they hope the headstone can provide the impacted families with some closure.
"A year later our community is just as strong as it was," Kohler said, "and I'm still thinking so much of those families."
The victims ranged from 2 to 33 years old.