Tijan Janneh has spent a lot of time over the last couple of days praying. His 27-year-old daughter Sera Janneh died in the Bronx high-rise fire.

“We prayed and prayed and prayed until yesterday, we heard the news that she passed," he said.

The family had lived in the building for more than a quarter century. Sunday morning seemed like any other weekend morning. Tijan was making breakfast for his family until he heard the sirens.

“I open the door, I see the smoke. In the hallway, I hear people saying ‘Let’s go! We got to go!’ So I tell my family, 'Let’s go, let’s go. Everybody out.'”

Janneh, his wife, two daughters and grandchildren rushed out of their sixth-floor apartment.

“The smoke was so dark, heavy. We could not see anything,” he said.

Janneh says he desperately searched for his family in the smoke and it took him 45 minutes to get out of the burning building.

“My wife told me that our daughter was taken to the ambulance. She was crying. I asked, 'What about the other one?' and she said, 'I don’t see her.'”

Janneh’s 19-year-old daughter was treated at the hospital, but his 27-year-old daughter Sera was unaccounted for. On Monday, the city called with the news.

“We all come from God, we all go back to God," Janneh said.

The family is trying to cope with the loss. They are displaced by the fire and staying in a nearby hotel for now, but feeling closer to their community.

“Come and pray, talk to us. All the neighborhood," Janneh said. "Everyone from the social workers, they’re all coming up. They all help.”

Janneh said his tight-knit Gambian community gives him strength while he finds refuge in his faith, praying at his mosque on Webster Avenue while he tries to plan a funeral for his oldest daughter.

"God created everyone. He gives and he take it away,” he said.