Local City Council member Leroy Comrie addressed the mourners. “I’m not a preacher,” he said in flat tones. “But I’ll tell you one thing, this neighborhood is under siege. We’ve been rezoned here. We’re in the sights of real-estate speculators. We have to pull together so this doesn’t happen ever again.”

People nodded their heads wanly. Said one unconvinced resident, “Sure, we got to stop it. But how?”

Back in Brooklyn, Ferguson was watering the plants in front of the empty 1033 Pacific Street. Keeping the flowers healthy shows someone cares, the Community Board 8 members say.

“Fight the blight,” said Ferguson while checking basement doors on an adjacent building. “If the doors are left open, people start hanging out. Then, wham, it’s on fire.”

There was some news on Pacific Street. It was discovered that someone had paid $885,000 for a ramshackle building down the block. Another, less-expected item was that the family of Kassoum Fofana, who’d fallen on top of Sherrie Williams the night of the 1033 fire, had a new apartment. This was good news, since the Fofanas had been more or less homeless since the fire. Weirdly, the Fofanas’ benefactor was the Forest City Ratner Companies, would-be builder of the hated Atlantic Yards project, which may do more than any fire to change the landscape of Brooklyn.

“Ratner got the Fofanas a place to live,” Batson said, shaking his head at the irony.

The Community Board 8 fire committee was chewing that one over as an engine company, 219 from Dean Street, roared by pumping full lights and sirens. Something was on fire.

Related:

• Archive: “Features”
• Articles by Mark Jacobson
• Table of Contents: September 25, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!