At least 19 people have died in a major fire in high-rise apartment building in the Bronx in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams informed on Sunday (January 9).
As per media reports in the United States, the death toll includes nine children also. Dozens of people are seriously injured and receiving treatment in the hospital.
“We know that we have 19 people who are confirmed dead, as well as several others in critical condition,” Adams told CNN, adding that 63 people had been injured. He added that this is going to be one of the “worst fires in our history.”
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Daniel Nigro, who is the commissioner of the New York City Fire Department, revealed the cause of the fire. As quoted by CNN, Nigro said that a “malfunctioning electric space heater” was the source of the fire.
He further added that the fire-causing heater was in the bedroom of an apartment and the fire consumed the room, spreading in the entire apartment.
He informed that the apartment door was left open and that’s how the smoke spread throughout the multistoried building.
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At least 200 firefighters responded to the blaze, which broke out mid-morning on the second and third floors of a 19-story building on East 181st Street, several blocks west of the Bronx Zoo.
Flames quickly engulfed much of the structure, and Nigro said the smoke was so dense as to be “unprecedented.”
Photographs and videos posted on social media showed flames and thick black smoke billowing out of a third-story window of the brick building as firefighters operated on a nearby ladder.
