It's an overpowering reminder to Bridgeport of lives lost and a family destroyed.

Outside, a blue tarp covers a shrine memorializing the four who died inside.

Under the tarp is a Sponge Bob SquarePants doll for 3-year-old Daisey Thach. There's a plastic trick-or-treat pumpkin for her 11-year-old sister, Thi My Trinh, and a sweatshirt full of written remembrances for their 14-year-old brother, Hoang Anh.

A little over six months ago, the three children and their mother, Thi Luong Thach, died as a fire swept through the three-family home at 1647-49 Iranistan Avenue.

The police who arrived first at the fire scene found Rinh Thach outside the building, collapsed in the street, screaming in agony — not just from the burns covering his body — but for the unfathomable loss of his family inside.

They learned of Jacqueline Gonzalez's heroism. As her world burned around her, Gonzalez remained composed, got her three children out alive and alerted her sister, Jessica, and her children on the first floor about the fire.

It was on a smoke filled second-floor stairway, that Gonzalez, carrying her daughter, Ashley, 5, saved Rinh Thach's life.

"He was trying to get back into his apartment," Gonzalez recalls. "So & I just pushed him down the stairs, telling him to get out, get out."

Thach did get out but tried to get back in several times. Each time he was driven back by the intense heat and flames. Finally, Gonzalez and others on the street restrained him.

In the days following the fire, the greater Bridgeport community opened their hearts and their wallets to Thach, Jacqueline and Jessica Gonzalez and their children.

"It was wonderful how everyone responded to their needs," said Myra Oliver, executive director of the International Institute. "But I can't say I'm surprised. That's how people in this area are."

Many like Raul Cedillos, 13; Maryann Lam, 13, and Milton Mitchell, 13, were classmates at James J. Curiale school of the two older Thach children.

The students knocked on doors, conducted a car wash and even ran a benefit soccer game to help Rinh Thach with his medical expenses.

Dan Tang and Dan Tran, family friends, made a personal appeal to help Thach, left penniless and in the hospital by the fire.

Over the next several days, Tang discovered the goodness of greater Bridgeport.

"I would come home and my mailbox would be full," said Tang. "People who didn't know Rinh were sending money. Those who couldn't afford money, were sending cards of condolences. "There are so many good-hearted people here," he said. "I know this helped Rinh so much."

At least $42,000 was donated, he said. Rinh Thach's lawyer, John LaCava said he advised Thach not to conduct any interviews because of an upcoming lawsuit.

"He's still suffering from physical injuries particularly to his lungs," LaCava said, adding that Thach has not worked since the fire.

These days, Tang said, Rinh Thach is dealing with his grief and taking things "one day at a time."

Rinh Thach and his family came to the United States on March 14, 2002 from Vietnam and settled in Bridgeport. He worked as a generator assembler at the Fermont Corp. and installed vinyl siding to make some extra money on the side.

His wife was the daughter of a Vietnamese woman and an U.S. soldier, whom Thi Luong Thach never met.

Oliver and U.S. Rep. Chris Shays helped bring Thach's mother, Hen Thi Thach, from Vietnam to spend nearly six months nursing her son back to health. She has just returned to her homeland.

"That was important for him — to have his mother here," Oliver said. "With Rep. Shays help we were able to do that on an expedited basis."

Bieu Tran, a 17-year-old senior at Harding High School who was good friends with Hoang Anh, Thach's son said Rinh "is not the way he should be, but he's doing better."

Oliver said the agency is in the process of helping Thach deliver his family's ashes to his native Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Tran said, every time he plays soccer or goes to the mall, he thinks of his dead friend.

"I try not to think about the fire," said Tran. "I try to think about the good times we had together. I wish I could bring Anh back." The day the Connecticut Post reported that Gonzalez and her family lost everything in the fire, her phone began ringing. Within hours, Gonzalez received more than 100 calls offering help.

"Everyone was so good to us," said Jacqueline Gonzalez. "They gave us beds, a refrigerator, washer and dryer, clothes, toys & They will all be blessed."

Whatever she didn't need went to her sister, Jessica, who lived on the first floor of the fire-ravaged house with her three children and also lost everything. "We share everything," Jacqueline Gonzalez said.

Oliver said, her agency was able to help Thach receive help from social service agencies as well as legal assistance.

"It's tough enough to come to this country from a foreign land and be resettled," she said. "But to do so and then lose your family in such a horrendous tragedy is mind-boggling."

One thing this tragedy pointed out is the need for families to find safe and affordable housing, Oliver said.

"If we were consulted, we wouldn't have allowed them to rent that apartment," said Oliver. An investigation by police and fire officials resulted in the arrest last month of Hai Pham, 37, of Iranistan Avenue the building's owner. She pleaded innocent to four separate charges of negligent homicide as well as four counts of violating the state's fire code. "I feel bad for her," Jacqueline Gonzalez said of the landlady. "She was a good landlord. Whenever you had a problem she would have it taken care of right away."

Jacqueline Gonzalez said she could understand charging Pham with the code violations but not the deaths.

Jessica Gonzalez agreed.

"She is a nice woman," she said of Pham. The apartment was found to contain no working smoke detectors and had anti-theft bars inside of the windows. In the bedroom of the Thachs' son, investigators found a glass pane door leading to the front stairway nailed shut from the inside and blocked by a heavy dresser on the outside.

But Pham may not be the only one held accountable. LaCava, Rinh Thach's lawyer, filed a notice to sue the city of Bridgeport.

"Our investigation so far leads us to believe the city failed to perform the required safety inspections," LaCava said. Caryn Kaufman, a spokesman for Mayor John M. Fabrizi, said the court has ordered a halt to full demolition of the house. Only "the dangerous loose components on the third floor" were taken down. The building is fire damaged but stable, she said.

One thing that Jacqueline and Jessica Gonzalez can't understand is why Rinh Thach avoids them when they see him on the street and never thanked Jacqueline for saving his life.

"I've seen him at the store across the street and he turns away," said Jacqueline Gonzalez, who moved to a new apartment in the same neighborhood. "I've waved to him and he ignores me."

Asked why Thach never thanked Gonzalez, LaCava said his client suffers from "severe psychological trauma." Jacqueline Gonzalez tries to understand how Thach feels. "If my children had died, I would be devastated," she said. "My children are my life."

Michael P. Mayko, who covers legal issues, can be reached at 330-6286.