Nineteen people were killed in an apartment fire in New York City, including nine children, in what the city’s fire commissioner described as “one of the worst blazes in recent memory.”
The death toll was confirmed by Stefan Ringel, a senior assistant to Mayor Eric Adams, to The Associated Press on Sunday, while a local official who was not permitted to speak publicly confirmed the number of children killed.
According to Ringel, more than a half-dozen people were hurt, with 13 of them still in severe condition at the hospital. At a press conference earlier that afternoon, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro stated that the bulk of the casualties were suffering from severe smoke inhalation.
Approximately 200 firemen were dispatched to the incident at the Bronx’s Twin Park apartments, a 19-story structure on East 181st Street, according to the FDNY.
Firefighters discovered fatalities on every floor and rushed them to the hospital, where they were in cardiac and respiratory arrest “Nigro said. In our city, that has never happened before. We anticipate a large number of fatalities.”
The ferocity of the fire was compared by Nigro to the Happy Land social club fire in 1990, which killed 87 people when a guy set fire to the building following an altercation with his former APP lover and was ejected out of the club.
According to Nigro, the fire started on the second and third floors of a duplex unit. According to him, firefighters discovered the flat door open, which allowed the fire to spread fast and accelerate.
The cause of the fire is being investigated, however it is not suspected to be suspicious.
The incident occurred just days after a house fire in Philadelphia claimed the lives of 12 people, including eight children.
