A large fire broke out on Friday night, just as Shabbos began, in the well-known Kollel Halperin building in Bnei Brak. The blaze started in an apartment located directly beneath the kollel, where a dormitory for bochurim of Yeshivas Ponovezh is situated. Several bochurim were sleeping there at the time.
B’Chadrei Chareidim reported that, in addition to the Ponovezh dorm residents, a group of bochurim from Yeshivas Zichron Michoel of Zichron Yaakov were also present in the apartment for Shabbos Sheva Brachos. According to reports, candles lit before Shabbos accidentally caused the fire to ignite.
As the flames spread rapidly, the Ponovezh bochurim sleeping in the dormitory were urgently evacuated from the building. Baruch Hashem, no injuries were reported.
Fire and rescue teams arrived quickly at the scene and succeeded in bringing the blaze under control. However, the damage to the apartment was extensive. Several pairs of tefillin were burned in the fire, as were multiple notebooks containing chiddushei Torah of Harav Avraham Kalmanowitz shlit”a.
The kollel located on the upper floor miraculously escaped major damage, aside from several windows that shattered from the heat.
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3 Responses
Reb Chaim Kanievsky
זכר צדיק וקדוש לברכה
He said it a few times, Bachurim that are lighting candles in their apartment and no one is near by watching the candles, he said very clearly, it’s
כדאי
To light the electric light if you have a generator.
I do not understand. These pictures were taken when the fire was still blazing. Also the video seems to be from Friday night. On Chadrei Chareidim it says that these were made after Rabbeinu Tam. How is this possible?
I have seen it in my yeshivah as well, Bochrim not always aware of necessary safeguards when lighting shabbos candles.
In many yeshivas, there are no shabbos candles permitted in the dormitory.
We also had once the wind moving the curtains towards the candles.