At least 19 people died on Sunday, and about 60 were injured in a building fire in the Bronx neighborhood of New York, the city’s new mayor Eric Adams announced on the spot.
“This will be one of the worst fires in our history. We know that we have 19 dead, as well as many others in critical condition and over 63 injured, ”the elected official said live on television. According to the mayor’s office, quoted by American television, nine children and adolescents are among the 19 people who have died.
The new mayor of New York, a former African-American police officer who took office on January 1, spoke of “a real tragedy not just for the Bronx and the city.”
In the images circulating on social networks, huge flames and thick black smoke escaped in the morning from a window of a multi-story building in the Bronx, a huge neighborhood in upstate New York.
“Chaotic scene”
George King, a resident of a nearby building, told AFP of a scene of “chaos”: “I’ve lived here for 15 years, this is the first time I’ve seen such a thing. “
He said that “he saw smoke, many people panicked” and that “no one wanted to jump out of the building”.
The New York firefighters, called to the scene around 11:00 (16:00 GMT), had initially announced a toll of about thirty injured and had the disaster under control in two hours. In this 19-storey brick HLM-type building, 200 firefighters intervened.
Caused by a portable heater
The fire was caused by a portable heater, firefighters later said. The investigators “established, on the basis of material clues and the first testimonies of the residents, that the fire started from a bedroom and an auxiliary heating,” said Daniel Nigro, head of the fire brigade of the city, during a press conference.
It really is a terrible day for us
“This is truly an atrocious day for us,” said Eric Adams, a centrist Democrat elected to a program to combat crime and economic and social inequality in New York.
Already a drama in Philadelphia
Last Wednesday, a terrible fire in a Philadelphia apartment building left 12 dead, including eight children.
And in that same neighborhood in the Bronx, in December 2017, a fire killed 12 people including four children, the most serious in 25 years in the city. It was caused by a three and a half year old boy playing with a gas stove.
New York, a megacity of nine million inhabitants, is suffering from a huge housing crisis in various neighborhoods, with buildings sometimes dilapidated and poorly maintained.
