Fire in New York City Apartment Building Kills 12

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City's deadliest residential fire in decades apparently began as a child played with a first-floor stove then spread quickly throughout a Bronx apartment building, killing 12 people and leaving four others fighting for their lives, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday. Those who died Thursday night included girls ages 1, 2 and 7, and a boy whose age was not given. De Blasio, a Democrat, says responders saved at least 12 lives. "Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro called the fire, "historic in its magnitude," because of the number of lives lost. Excluding the Sept. 11 attacks, it was the worst fire in the city since 87 people were killed at a social club fire in the Bronx in 1990. "Our hearts go out to every person who lost a loved one here and everyone who is fighting for their lives," Nigro said. The blaze broke out on the first floor of a five-story building just before 7 p.m. and quickly tore through the roughly century-old structure near the Bronx Zoo. Some tenants of the building, a mix of native New Yorkers and Latino and African immigrants, climbed down fire escapes. But the flames moved so fast that many never made it out of their apartments. The cause of the fire remained under investigation. About 170 firefighters worked in bone-chilling cold, just 15 degrees, to rescue about a dozen people from the building. Thierno Diallo, 59, a security guard originally from Conakry, Guinea, who lives in a ground floor apartment said he ...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Major Incidents News Mass Casualty Incidents Source Type: news