Twelve people, including a child, died Thursday in the worst fire in New York in decades, when a fire broke out on the ground floor of an apartment building in the Bronx neighborhood.
“We risk losing more people,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio, who immediately attended the scene. “There are four seriously injured people struggling with death and other serious injuries as well. It’s the worst fire we’ve seen in this city in at least a quarter of a century. ”
Firefighters managed to take twelve people to safety but searches of the building are continuing, the mayor said. “People have died on different floors, and their ages range from 1 year to over 50,” New York Fire Chief Daniel Nigo said.
According to several media reports, two of the deceased were found in a bathtub filled with water in which they appear to have tried to take refuge to escape the flames.
The cold complicated the work of the firefighters
The fire – which is under control – started on the ground floor of a four-story brick building, like there are hundreds of in New York City, around 7 p.m. local time (1 a.m. in Switzerland) before spreading to the 2nd floor, officials say. The causes of the fire, which quickly spread to all floors of the building, which has 25 apartments, are not yet known.
“This tragedy is undoubtedly historic in its magnitude,” said the fire chief before adding: “We are shocked by this loss.”
A school which is not far from the disaster has been transformed into an emergency reception center for the inhabitants of the building while the thermometer shows freezing temperatures around –10 ° C. The cold made the work of the firefighters more difficult.
Ten days ago, a woman and her three children died in a house fire in Brooklyn, another New York neighborhood. And in March 2007, ten people were killed – already in the Bronx – in the fire of a house that housed two Malian families.
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