Tragedy in apartment building
At least 19 dead in New York fire
01/09/2022 10:31 p.m
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At least 19 people – including children – are killed in a major fire in a multi-story apartment building in New York. The reason for the catastrophe in the Bronx district is apparently a defective heater.
At least 19 people died in a devastating fire in a residential building in the Bronx, New York. This was announced by New York Mayor Eric Adams at noon (local time) in an interview with CNN. Children are also among the dead. A broken electric heater is believed to be responsible for the fire. “There were kids who got hurt and some kids lost their lives,” Adams said. He later spoke on Twitter of nine dead children. At least 63 residents were injured, said fire chief Daniel Nigro in a press conference.
32 people were taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. Dense smoke quickly spread across all 19 floors. The door to a burning apartment on a lower floor was open, Nigro said. The people in the building were trapped in their apartments by smoke. Firefighters found victims on every floor, many with severe smoke inhalation.
The fire broke out in the morning (local time) on a gray New York winter day with cold drizzle. After a large-scale operation by around 200 firefighters, it was extinguished in just a few hours. Videos on social media showed images of thick smoke billowing through shattered windows. Firefighters used ladders to get residents out of the home. Hours after the fire in the heart of the Bronx, the scene of the accident was still shrouded in blue lights. Hundreds of police, fire brigade and special teams continued to search for clues. According to the police, a school has been opened for people displaced from their homes by the fire.
“It started with a faulty electric space heater. That is the cause of the fire. The fire has spread through the apartment, which extends over two floors,” said Nigro. A door was also left open, allowing deadly smoke to spread throughout the building.
“The numbers are terrible,” Mayor Adams told the press. This will be one of the worst fires in New York’s recent history. In 1990, a fire at the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx killed 87 people. The fire was attributed to arson. Twelve people, including eight children, died in a fire in an apartment building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. The fire broke out on the middle floor of a three-story apartment building.
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