Several dozen people yesterday visited the site of last year’s fatal house fire in Stamford, Conn., to light candles and leave flowers in memory of the three little sisters who died last Christmas along with their grandparents.
Dan Hoffman, an IT worker from Long Island, knelt in front of the site on Shippan Avenue, where only a concrete foundation slab surrounded by overgrown brush remains of Madonna Badger’s house.
“I just prayed for the family and what they’re going through,” said Hoffman, who left a teddy bear at the site.
Hoffman said he felt compelled to visit after recently reading about the fire. “It just ripped my heart out,” he said.
“I said, ‘I really want to make it up there if I can,’ ” said Hoffman, who took a detour on his way back home from his parents’ house in Pennsylvania.
Jessica Castaneda, of The Bronx, who formerly worked for Badger, came with her husband, José, and their three young kids.
“I was working [for her] there Christmas Eve, a year ago,” said Castaneda, referring to the vanished home, as she relit a line of candles left by others that had burned out.