Funerals are planned Sunday for seven siblings from an Orthodox Jewish family who died in an early morning house fire in New York City.

Authorities say their mother and a teenage sister survived by jumping from the second floor of their Brooklyn home, but both suffered burns and smoke inhalation.

Fire investigators believe a warming plate in the first-floor kitchen ignited the fire shortly after midnight. Many religious Jews refrain from using electricity on the Sabbath but leave appliances on so they may be used.

New York Police Department officials say the children ranged in age from 5 to 16.

A state assemblyman representing the tightknit Orthodox Jewish community says the deaths are ``an absolute disaster.'' Dov Hikind says the community remains in ``utter shock.''

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