Two sisters died Thanksgiving Day after rushing into a house fire to help their disabled father escape, authorities said. The blaze broke out at a home on Mosswood Avenue in Orange at about 5 p.m. on Thursday, November 27, 2025. The victims were identified as 49-year-old Frantzia Fleury and 42-year-old Pojanee “PJ” Fleury.
According to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, family members and neighbors told investigators the women were trying to get their father — described by relatives as disabled and diagnosed with dementia — out of the house when they were overcome by the fire. Both sisters were pronounced dead shortly after 6:45 p.m. Their father and six other people managed to get out and were not fatally injured; the father was taken to the hospital. The home has been declared uninhabitable.
Community members and family described the sisters as devoted caregivers and active in their community. Pojanee Fleury was known as the founder of Brown Eyez Magazine and as an author and inventor; Frantzia Fleury worked as a radiologic technologist. Mourners gathered near the charred home, expressing shock and sorrow at the holiday-time tragedy.
Investigators have not released a cause for the fire and said the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office is continuing the inquiry. Authorities are asking anyone with information to contact the prosecutor’s office tip line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC (1-877-847-7432).
English