Four children among 12 dead in New York blaze

OUTBREAK: It is thought a child playing with a stove started the fire

Four children are among the 12 people killed in New York City’s deadliest residential fire in decades.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said four other people are still fighting for their lives. He said first responders saved at least 12 lives.

Investigators believe the blaze, the deadliest residential fire to hit New York City in at least 25 years, was caused by a child playing with a stove.

Those who died in the Bronx fire on Thursday night include three girls – aged one, two and seven – and a boy whose age was not given, the New York Police Department says.

Some residents made it down fire escapes but the flames moved so fast that many never got out of their apartments.

Witnesses describe seeing burned bodies being carried away on stretchers and young girls who had escaped standing barefoot outside with no coats.

Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the blaze was “historic in its magnitude” because of the number of lives lost.

Excluding the September 11 attacks, it was the worst fire in the city since 87 people were killed at a social club fire in the Bronx in 1990.

“Our hearts go out to every person who lost a loved one here and everyone who is fighting for their lives,” Mr Nigro said.

The blaze broke out on the first floor of a five-storey building just before 7pm and quickly ripped through the structure, which stands in a row of similar apartment buildings a block from the grounds of the Bronx Zoo.

Around 170 firefighters worked in -9C (15F) cold to rescue about a dozen people from the building. Water sprayed from hoses froze on the street.

Kenneth Kodua, 37, said he left his apartment to get food, leaving his roommate behind, and came back to find people fleeing in a panic.

Some residents made it down fire escapes but others never got out of their apartments. Picture: AP.