Child playing with stove likely sparked deadly Bronx fire
NEWYORK – Mayor Bill de Blasio says a child playing with the burners on a stove apparently touched off a four- alarm fire in the Bronx late Thursday that killed at least 12 people, including four children.
Four people remained in critical condition. “We may lose others as well,” de Blasio told reporters Friday morning.
The victims included a girl, about 1year old, whowas found in her dead mother’s arms in a bathtub, the New York Post reported. The New York Police Department says those who died included girls ages 1, 2 and 7 and a boy whose age was not given.
Some residents were able to get out safely, while others were overcome within minutes in their apartments by the fast- moving flames.
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro called the fire “historic in its magnitude.” More than 170 New York City firefighters responded to the scene.
“Our hearts go out to every person who lost a loved one here and everyone who is fighting for their lives,” he said.
Firefighters rescued at least 15 people, a fire department spokesman told The Daily News.
Crews worked in sub- freezing temperatures to extinguish the blaze in the 101- year- old five- story-walkup located a block from the Bronx Zoo.
Thierno Diallo, 59, a security guard originally from Guinea who lives in a ground- floor apartment, said he was asleep when he heard banging on his door. It took a moment to realize what was happening.
“Only when I heard people screaming, ‘ There’s a fire in the building!’ ” he said. “I heard somebody, ‘ Oh! Fire! Fire! Fire!’ ”
“The smoke was crazy, people screaming, ‘ Get out!” witness Jamal Flicker told the New York Post. “I heard a woman yelling, ‘ We’re trapped, help!’ ”
Emmanuel Mensah, 28, who was home for the holidays from serving in the Army, is among the missing, the Post reported.
The 12 confirmed fatalities make the fire the deadliest in the city since 1990, The New York Times reported.