Westchester County’s Board of Legislators stood for a moment of silence on Monday for four New Yorkers killed in an explosion in Athens on Friday.
One of them was Florida Hoxha, 34. She grew up in the Bronx and was a senior attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group, representing immigrants facing eviction. She had also worked on the Westchester board chairman’s campaign.
Legislator Vedat Gashi, like Hoxha an Albanian American, said she cared about her neighbourhood and about other people. “Really is a tremendous loss for Westchester. Tremendous loss for the entire community.” He said she had lately talked about running for office.
Authorities believe a natural gas leak caused the blast. It destroyed the three-storey building in the Plaka tourist district where the group was staying.
Hoxha and Ian Kirkpatrick married in August and had gone to Greece. Her brother, Florin Hoxha, was there with his wife, Erisa Cani, an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at Touro College. Cani was five and a half months pregnant.
An elderly couple who owned the building also died.
The family was too distressed to speak on camera. Relatives said the siblings’ parents are in Athens waiting to bring the bodies home for burial in New York.
Source: Marcus Solis, WABC / ABC7 New York, 30 September 2026.
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