Deadly NY blaze sparked by boy playing with stove

NEW YORK: A three- year- old boy playing with stove burners acci through a New York apartment building, killing 12 people includ department chief said on Friday.

The blaze broke out Thursday evening in a 25-apartment building near the Bronx Zoo, one of the most popular tourist attractions in

Four people remain in a critical condition following the inferno, which Mayor Bill de Blasio called the this city in at least a quarter century.”

- missioner Daniel Nigro told reporters.

“It started from a young boy, three-and-a-half years old, playing with the burners on the stove. The aware of it—she was alerted by the young man screaming.”

two children, leaving the door to the apartment open— allowing and quickly spread in the building, escapes, seeking rescue.

“The stairway acted like a chim so quickly upstairs that people had very little time to react.”

in just over three minutes, but for some, it was already too late. Five people died at the scene, and seven others were pronounced dead at local hospitals.

“It seems like a horrible, tragic accident,” De Blasio said Friday.

More than 160 firefighters rushed to the scene and worked for about three hours to control the inferno. In the bitter cold, water leaking from the hoses froze on the pavement.

A mother and her two daughters— aged two and seven— as well as a one-year-old girl and an dead, according to police.

Tearful residents said they heard followed by a mad rush to exit the

with just the clothes on their backs, and authorities called for those who wanted to donate clothes to do so at a local church.

“It was very tough,” said Joel Rodriguez, 40, who escaped from his “pitch black” corridors.

“I still have the images in my mind. I can’t erase them,” he added, his eyes masked by dark glasses.

The building— cordoned off with yellow security tape—”is a memorial site now,” he said.

Two of the dead were discovered in a bathtub full of water, where they had apparently sheltered from the blaze, US media reported.

“This tragedy is, without question, historic in its magnitude,” said Nigro.

“It’s the time of year where people celebrate and certainly here, we have people who have lost their lives, lost their homes, lost everything, and we grieve with them.”

The plaster and brick structure, built in 1916, had six open violations including for a defective smoke detector, The New York Times reported, though De Blasio said there was nothing problematic “as far as we can see.”