World
New York apartment fire kills 19, including nine children
Some residents said they initially ignored wailing smoke alarms because false alarms were so common in their building.
In New York City’s deadliest blaze in three decades, at least 19 people—including nine children, have died and dozens were injured after a massive fire engulfed a high-rise apartment building.
Apparently, a malfunctioning space heater sparked the fire that filled Bronx apartment building with thick smoke Sunday morning, killing 19 in one of America's worst residential fires in recent memory.
Fire broke out just before 11:00 am (1600 GMT) on the second and third floors of a 19-story building.
At least 200 firefighters responded to the blaze and found victims on every floor, many of them in cardiac and respiratory arrest, said Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro.
Some could not escape because of the volume of smoke, he added.
Commissioner Nigro said there were two floors of fire, but the smoke had spread everywhere, adding that the door to the apartment where the fire started was left open, and smoke then spread to every floor.
A total of 63 people suffered injuries, including the 32 taken to hospital. 13 are in a critical condition, Stefan Ringel, a senior adviser to the mayor said.
Some residents said they initially ignored wailing smoke alarms because false alarms were so common in the 120-unit building—built in the early 1970s as affordable housing.
The blaze has been declared the deadliest fire at a US residential apartment building in years.
There were fears of a growing toll.
According to data from the National Fire Protection Association, 13 people died in an apartment building, also in the Bronx in 2017.
New York City fire codes generally require apartment doors to be spring-loaded and slam shut automatically, but it was not immediately clear whether this building was covered by those rules.
The deadly fire happened just days after 12 people, including eight children, were killed in a house fire in Philadelphia.
In 1989, a Tennessee apartment building fire claimed the lives of 16 people.