A blaze that tore through a New York home killing a mother and her three children was caused by unwatched menorah candles, the city’s fire department said.

Nine people were in the house when the fire was reported early on Monday morning in Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay neighbourhood.

Aliza Azan was found dead on the second floor of the home, near three of her children: Moshe, 11, Yitzah, seven, and three-year-old Henrietta.

Thousands of mourners gathered at a Brooklyn synagogue for their funeral on Monday night.

Hundreds of mourners outside Beit Knesset Sheves Achim synagogue in Brooklyn as the bodies of Aliza Azan, 39, her 3-year-old little girl Henrietta and sons Moshe, 11, and Yitzchak, 7, approach before being flown to Israel. All perished in a fire earlier this morning. pic.twitter.com/yhGvQ8mXZy

— elizabeth rosner (@elizameryl) December 19, 2017

The children’s father Joseph and two of their teenage children – Shlat, 16, and 15-year-old Daniel – remain in a critical condition in hospital, AP reported.

A sixth child, 13-year-old Avraham Azan, and a cousin who was sleeping over made it out alive.

“So often, tragedy strikes at this time of year, and the holidays make it that much more difficult because our communities should be celebrating, not mourning,” fire commissioner Daniel Nigro said.

The father was “severely burned trying to get back to save the rest of his family, the ones he didn’t already save. We believe that he acted very courageously and tried desperately,” he added.

“Hopefully it didn’t cost his life also, but it may.”