“This is going to be one of the worst fires in our history,” lamented the mayor of New York. At least 19 people died on Sunday in the giant fire in the Bronx district, north of the city, around 11 a.m. (5 p.m. in France). Nine of these victims are children and adolescents, said the mayor’s office quoted by US television. About sixty residents were also injured.
Images circulating on social media showed huge flames and thick black smoke billowing from a window of a 19-story brick public housing building. About 200 firefighters intervened to bring the disaster under control within two hours.
The fire broke out in a duplex apartment located on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building, has explained New York Fire Department (FDNY) Commissioner Daniel Nigro. The door to this apartment was left open and the smoke then spread to all floors. The firefighters were greeted by “very thick smoke, a very intense fire” in the corridors.
Smoke inhalation
“They found victims on each floor and evacuated them while they were in cardiac and respiratory arrest,” said Daniel Nigro. It’s unheard of in our city. We expect there will be many deaths. The injuries are mainly caused by smoke inhalation, he said. Many windows were smashed, probably by locals trying to avoid suffocation.
George King, a resident of a nearby building described a scene of ‘chaos’:’ I’ve lived here for fifteen years, it’s the first time I’ve seen something like this. He said he “saw smoke, a lot of people panicked” and “nobody wanted to jump out of the building.”
“There was a lot of smoke so we had to stop on the sixth floor and were able to enter a neighbor’s house. We stayed there until the firefighters arrived and they could guide us to the exit, ”Fatima, a resident of the apartment, told the channel. ABC7 New York.
A resident on the 11th floor of the building, Miguel Enrique, said he just had time to “grab a coat and take the elevator” because the hallway was black with smoke.
“A terrible day for us”
Eric Adams, the new mayor of New York, a former African-American police officer who took office on January 1, spoke of a “real tragedy not just for the Bronx and the city”. “It is a horrible, horrible, painful moment for New York”, declared this centrist Democrat, elected on a program of fight against crime and economic and social inequalities. “It really is an excruciating day for us. “
“I am horrified by the devastating fire in the Bronx today,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Twitter. “My heart is with the loved ones of all those we have tragically lost, all those who have been touched and with our heroic FDNY firefighters. The whole of New York State stands in solidarity with New York City. “
Another fire this week killed 12 people including eight children in a neighborhood in central Philadelphia. And in this same district of the Bronx, in December 2017, a fire had killed 12 people including four children, the most serious in 25 years in the city. It was provoked by a 3.5 year old child playing with a gas stove. New York, a megalopolis of nine million inhabitants, is suffering in various neighborhoods from a huge housing crisis, with buildings that are sometimes dilapidated and poorly maintained.