EAST ELMHURST — A funeral will be held Tuesday morning to memorialize the 7-year-old boy who was killed in a New Year's Day fire at his home in East Elmhurst.
Christopher Miller died after trying to escape from his second-floor bedroom and became trapped by the flames. He suffered fatal burns on his body, police said.
The boy will be remembered at a memorial service will be held Tuesday, Jan. 7 at 10 a.m. at Blessed Sacrament Church in Jackson Heights.
Christopher's 12-year-old brother, Mathew, is still being treated at New York Hospital in Manhattan after suffering serious burns to his body, according to a family friend who has also established an online fundraising page to support the Miller family.
The page has already raised over $25,000 in donations, which will go directly to the family and be used "as they see fit," said said Angelica M. Penaranda, a good family friend who organized the fundraiser. The money could help with hospital bills, funeral costs or in finding them a new place to live, she said.
The fire in the family's home on 90th Street started when embers from a fireplace escaped and set a nearby mattress ablaze, according to the FDNY.
The fireplace did not have a spark screen, and the home also didn't have a working smoke detector, the FDNY said.
