Phila.'s W. Africans grieve for 7 fire victims

The agony of Michelle Dosso's loss hits hardest each dawn, when she feels crushed anew by the deaths of her daughter Mariam, 6, and sons Ramere, 8, and Zyhire, 1. The children died on the day after Christmas in a fast-moving house fire.

"I get up at 5 a.m.," said Dosso, 29. "I pour a cup of juice. I sit it in front of me," as if waiting for Zyhire. And there it sits.

What was once routine now shreds Dosso's heart with its utter needlessness.

"I was so used to hearing them early in the morning, fighting over the bathroom," said Dosso, slumped beneath a red-and-black blanket on a friend's sofa. Almost preternaturally, the TV is tuned to a soap opera where an actress delivers her lines: " . . . Losing a child. It changes you."

The blaze inside a Southwest Philadelphia twin claimed not only Dosso's children, all of West African descent, but also four members of two Liberian immigrant families. Mariam and Ramere were half Ivorian, and baby Zyhire half Liberian. Dosso was born in Harrisburg and moved to Philadelphia a decade ago.

As the three stricken families prepare for a joint funeral Saturday, the wider West African community is joining her to grieve.

To raise funds for the burial and subsequent needs of the survivors, the families say they will launch a public appeal today at a news conference in front of the burned-out shell near 65th Street and Elmwood Avenue.

"They have raised some money, but nowhere close to what they need. That's why the funerals have been delayed," said Megan Carney, a publicist for the law firm Stark & Stark, which represents the estates of several of the victims. Carney has helped the families get media attention, including placing announcements on Liberian-interest Web sites to extend the appeal worldwide.

Some individuals and church-affiliated donors came forward immediately after the fire, and Final Farewell, a Jenkintown charity, is donating the caskets. Nonetheless, Carney said, the families are short an estimated $40,000 in related costs.

In the fire's immediate aftermath, Dosso said in an interview Friday, local and national Liberian leaders tended to be magnets for the media's interest in the tragic story, and she started to feel "disrespected."

"Everyone assumed that I was African," she said. "I was not being acknowledged as an American citizen at all. My kids were half and half. We need to acknowledge both."

However, as details emerged about how the victims died, Dosso said, her anger melted.

The fire erupted when a kerosene heater was mishandled and exploded. Christiana Teah, 41, and Harris Murphy, 35, ran through the flames to safety. Zyhire's father, Elliott Teah, 23; his sisters, Vivian, 26, and Jennifer, 17; and a family friend, Henry Gobokoloi, 54, took refuge in a basement bathroom, where they sheltered the children from the flames. All eventually succumbed to smoke inhalation.

"It is because of me that we are going to have one [unified] funeral," Dosso said. "When I found out how they were huddled together, I felt as though I should honor that.

"Just as Mr. Murphy ran through the fire, other people could have run through the fire. But they stayed for the children, and I am grateful," said Dosso, who "took comfort" knowing their bodies were not burned.

The survivors have received hundreds of condolence cards, including "profound regrets and sympathy" from Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who in a statement issued in Monrovia encouraged Liberians in the Philadelphia area to lend support to the families. Nathaniel Barnes, Liberia's ambassador to the United States, is expected to represent Sirleaf at the funerals, said Showih Kamara, president of the Liberian Association of Pennsylvania.

A memorial Web site, www.philasevenfirevictims.org, recalls Jennifer Teah as a vivacious teen and fan of fashion. "Pinks with brown and purple or orange with green and red," the posting notes, "and that's just her hair."

Vivian Teah, a security guard from Maryland, was in Philadelphia for a Christmas visit with her family.

Elliott Teah worked at the Home Depot on Oregon Avenue in South Philadelphia.

Henry Gobokoloi, a fixture in the local Liberian community, was known to friends as "Conmon." He was a businessman with import-export interests in Monrovia.

Since the fire, Dosso has not returned to her job as an assistant manager for a video chain. On Friday, as she prepared her remarks for the funerals, she recalled Ramere, a second grader at McMichael School, as a fan of football, basketball and PlayStation "who knew every word to every song by 50 Cent."

Mariam, a first grader at McMichael, loved Hannah Montana and Tyra Banks, and was "a true top model in the works." She could talk "from sunup to sundown," said Dosso, who called her "my little mommy, because she acted like she was the mom."

Zyhire, a roly-poly toddler nicknamed Butterball, Ziggy and Apple Butt-Butt, had just started talking. "Love you, Mommy" are the last words Dosso said she heard him say.

"It hurts," she said, scrolling through pictures of the children stored on her cell phone. "But I am happy with the way I raised my kids. Some say I spoiled them. But I am happy with everything I gave them."

Funeral arrangements are as follows: All viewings and services will be at Divine Mercy Parish, 6667 Chester Ave. On Friday, friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m., with a funeral service from 9 to 11 p.m., and an additional viewing from 11 to 11:30 p.m.

On Saturday, calling is from 8 to 9 a.m.; an additional service will be held from 9 a.m. to noon.

Interment will be at Mount Zion Cemetery, Collingdale.

Donations may be made through the memorial Web site's PayPal link, or by mail to Phila. Seven Fire Victims Memorial Fund, Account 2000031121480, Wachovia Eastwick Financial Center, 2904 Island Ave., Philadelphia 19153.