CLEVELAND -- Eight caskets laid side by side inside Public Hall as family and friends paid their final respects for the victims of Cleveland's worst house fire in history.

Thousands of people gathered for the funeral Tuesday at the Cleveland Convention Center for seven children and a mother who died May 21 in a fire on East 87th Street.

It's the first time a funeral has been held in Public Hall since former Mayor Carl Stokes died in 1997.

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The outpouring of support for the victims families has been remarkable. The entire community showed their empathy for the victims.

"Life is so challenging sometimes," said the Rev. C.J. Mathews of Mount Zion Baptist Church. "We come grieving and weeping."

The Rev. R.A. Vernon of The Word Church presided over the service and compared it to a religious revival. He predicted it would lead to renewed faith.

"I believe God is going to do something today," he said.

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Mayor Speaks At Funeral Thousands Attend Funeral

Many who attended the funeral were students, and speakers -- including U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Mayor Jane Campbell -- asked them to honor the fire victims.

"Each child was there (at the house) for all the right reasons. Each child had hopes and dreams and now we have a new responsibility," Campbell said. "And that is that we want to have each of those children's dreams that can't be fulfilled in the way that they had hoped be fulfilled by other children in this community."

She added that the mother of the children who perished in the fire was known as a parent who wanted to create happy celebrations such as the birthday sleepover.

The funeral was for:

• Media Carter, 33
• Devonte Carter, 15
• Antwon Jackson, 14
• Moses Williams, 14
• Ernest Tate, 13
• Shauntavia Mitchell, 12
• Maleeya Williams, 11
• Fakih Jones, 7

Miles Cockfield, 13, was laid to rest Saturday.

Hundreds of mourners filed past the caskets, five of them opened, for an hour before the service began. Attendants dressed in white fanned mourners as they approached the caskets -- several had to be helped away to their seats.

Family members crowded around the caskets as they were closed.

Cleveland Municipal Schools were closed in observance of the funerals. Seven of the victims attended city schools. Students and teachers attended the service.

The fire's cause hasn't been determined but it appears to be accidental.

Thousands of dollars have already been donated to the family fund at Key Bank.

Retired police detective James Brenza donated four burial plots at Whitehaven Memorial Park. The cemetery has donated the other five plots. Cleveland Memorial is providing nine granite headstones, said Andy Zelenak, company owner.

The family also has been promised free caskets, vaults and burial clothes, and more than 100 area churches have been collecting money for families of the victims.