At least 19 people, including nine children, died Sunday January 9 and around 60 were injured in a terrible accidental fire in a building in the Bronx in New York, “One of the worst” of the recent history of the megalopolis.
Victims have been found “On each floor” of this brick building which has 19, the smoke rising to the top of the building. The fire started because of an auxiliary heater in a duplex apartment of 2 and 3e floors, according to the New York firefighters.
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Arrived very quickly on the spot at the beginning of the afternoon, the new mayor of New York Eric Adams shared a provisional assessment of “19 people died as well as several others in critical condition and more than 63 people injured” in total. He later confirmed on his Twitter account the loss of nine children and adolescents among the 19 people who died. It is, according to the city councilor, “One of the worst fires in our history” recent, a “Real tragedy not just for the Bronx and the city”.
New videos shows smoke pouring out of an apartment building in New York City from a massive fire that killed at least 19 people. including nine children, according to officials. https://t.co/JPO13Cafbvpic.twitter.com/mlsK9BCE98
— ABC News (@ABC) January 9, 2022
The fire would have started with an auxiliary heater
In the first images that circulated on social media Sunday morning, huge flames and thick black smoke billowed from a window of a multi-story building in the Bronx, a huge working-class neighborhood in upstate New York. New York firefighters, called to the scene around 11:00 a.m. (4:00 p.m. GMT), had initially announced a toll of around thirty injured and had brought the disaster under control in two hours. Two hundred firefighters intervened on this HLM type building.
According to New York Fire Chief Daniel Nigro on site, investigators “Determined on the basis of material evidence and the first testimonies of residents that the fire started from a bedroom and an auxiliary heater”. After the fire broke out in an apartment located “On the second and third floors”, firefighters “Found themselves facing the fire in the corridors: a lot of smoke, a very heavy fire”, he explained.
The smoke spread over the entire height of the building, which is totally unusual and the firefighters “Found victims on each floor and evacuated them in a state of cardiac and respiratory arrest”, detailed Daniel Nigro.
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