At least 20 people, including nine children, were killed in an apartment building fire in the Bronx, New York.
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Addressing the media at the site of the disaster, the mayor of New York said that the authorities are now counting more than sixty injured.
This will be one of the worst fires in our history. “We know we have 19 people who have died plus several others in critical condition and more than 63 people injured,” Eric Adams said after visiting the site of the fire.
Courtesy Twitter / FDNY
According to the New York Fire Department, the flames originated around 11 a.m. in the 19-story building, and spread to the second and third floors.
Everything suggests that a fire caught in a dwelling whose door remained open. Thick smoke then spread throughout the building, Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro summed up, according to comments carried by CNN.
In doing so, the smoke turned the stairs into veritable traps for the building’s residents who sought to evacuate. Dozens of victims, including many in cardiopulmonary arrest, were found on the stairs, suffocating from smoke that spread down the stairs.
The fire department said more than 200 firefighters responded to the scene and quickly brought the blaze under control.