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Family and friends comforted each other Saturday at a funeral service for Maschay Joa Valdez in Chinatown.

He, along with five members of his family, died in an apartment fire last weekend.

Paul Viera worked with Joa Valdez and says his colleague and friend was calm and spiritual.

"It was a peaceful experience working with him," said Viera. "He was a great friend and we always shared lunch together and he was a good person to work with and I'm going to miss him very much."

The bodies of Valdez, three of his children, and their mother were pulled from a sixth-floor apartment in the Robert Fulton Houses in Chelsea October 11th.

Their fourth, and eldest, child survived five days before being taken off life support Thursday.

Just a few hours after Joa Valdez was laid to rest at a cemetery upstate, family and friends gathered at this funeral home in Washington Heights to say good bye to his four children and their mother.

Viewing services were held for Delkis Balbuena, 34, and her children: 10-year-old Gonzan, eight-year-old Nancy, three-year-old Betel, and 15-month-old Ruth.

"She was very caring with her kids," said relative Dilson Espnal. "She was very caring with her kids and she loved them a lot. They were very close."

"She was just a wonderful mother, beautiful," said Ana Perkins, a family friend. "It's just so sad."

Bus driver Chache Morales drove two of the children to school. In memory of her young passengers, she placed this toy school bus inscribed with the message "forever in our hearts" next to the caskets.

"They were really good kids, I'll tell you that much," she said. "I didn't have any problems with them, and ill always remember their smile. I'm heartbroken."

Investigators say a child playing with matches or a lighter sparked the deadly blaze. Fire officials say the apartment's smoke detector was unplugged and the backup battery was missing.

"We tell people they have to check their smoke detectors," said Emergency Rights founder Awilda Cordero. "It's so important."

The family received donations to help cover funeral costs.

Services for the mother and four children will be held at St. Elizabeth's Church in Washington Heights on Monday morning. The family will be buried at St. Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx.