Don't dare let the deaths of four children go unresolved

"IT'S OVER!" "Let it go!"

I'm never sure what kind of response my columns will get. But I did not expect that response after I wrote about the results of the investigation into the fatal Gesner Street fire on July 5.

The conclusion that the fire that gutted most of a Southwest Philadelphia block and killed four children was so hot that it destroyed any evidence of what sparked it felt unresolved and so sad.

That can't be the way it ends, I wrote. Someone has to answer for these deaths. But that clearly wasn't going to happen unless someone came forward with new information.

And then the calls and emails poured in. One call in particular stood out. The man, who identified himself as "a father, not a firefighter" from "the community," yelled into the phone.

"Sometimes a fire burns so hot that you can't find any physical evidence of what started it," he said, repeating the reason behind the fire marshal's determination. "That's science. It's fact. It's physics. Your column should have ended there."

He kept going. "Why are you trying to incite people over this nonsense? That's the end. It happened. It's done."

Done? Four babies - one as young as 49 days - are killed in a fire that was likely started by a cigarette or fireworks tossed onto a couch on a front porch and we should what - shrug?

Move along folks, nothing to see here. Yeah, I don't think so.

Admittedly I'm not good at letting things go or at accepting the unacceptable. But imagine being a parent of one of the children who died, never knowing exactly who or what took them. Imagine that there is likely someone (or many someones) who saw or heard something that could offer you answers, if not solace.

Imagine trying to live with such a tragic mystery.

I can't imagine a parent living with that. And I can't imagine a city accepting it.

Most of the readers who responded to the column said they were from Philadelphia, a few said they lived near Gesner Street. But I wondered how the people most directly affected felt.

So I started at Christ International Baptist Church, ground zero for helping the Liberian community most affected by the fire. On the day I visited, a few people sat around tables still piled high with donations that poured in.

The men I spoke with had already heard that the cause of the fire was undetermined. But to my relief they were just as surprised that anyone would suggest that's where it should end.

"How can it be done?" asked Michael Chea, a member of the Liberian Association of Pennsylvania. "Someone murdered those children."

Chea said that at the funeral for the children, Patrick Sanyeah, the father of one of the kids who died, said he would not rest until he got answers.

That was good to hear, but I couldn't help but notice what was missing - the palpable outrage we heard from the community when they erroneously thought the Fire Department didn't respond quickly enough.

Around the corner from the church, where the charred remains of the homes stood, I ran into Tyrone Watson. He lives in one of the Gesner Street homes that was spared and was putting up fliers for an upcoming block party.

As we walked down the street, we talked about how unfinished the whole tragic incident seemed. But like the men inside the church, he said he still believed they would find an answer. It would just come slowly, he said, and most likely in the whispers shared in the neighborhood.

"Eventually, it will come out," he said. "We just have to be patient."

He and others suggested a reward might prompt people to come forward. And while I wish people would line up to do the right thing without any incentive, if money will help, then maybe a reward does make sense. Except someone has to put it up. The Police Department said it would have to come from the Fire Department or the city. The Fire Department said it had no budget for rewards.

So, I called the Liberian ambassador to the United States. After the fire, Jeremiah Sulunteh met with the community and city officials to try to calm tensions. He pledged an investigation to determine what went wrong.

What's wrong right now, ambassador, is that no one is coming forward with the information necessary to bring whoever did this to justice.

I haven't heard back from him. But I'll keep calling, because this isn't over, and it won't be until someone answers for these children's deaths.

Phone: 215-854-5943

On Twitter: @NotesFromHel