The fire that broke out on Sunday (9) in an apartment building in the Bronx, New York may have originated from an apartment electric heater. The hypothesis was put forward by the chief fire department (FDNY) Dan Negro during a press conference.
According to forensic medicine, a duplex room between the second and third floors of the 19-storey and 120-unit tower was supposed to catch fire. Leaving the apartment, its occupants left the door open, which contributed to the rapid spread of the fire.
So far, there are 19 dead – nine of them minors – and 30 in hospital, some in very serious condition. Fire is the most dangerous thing in the world Modern New York HistoryCompare Negro with what happened in 1990 at the Happy Land Club, in which 87 people were killed.
the Mayor Eric Adams He highlighted that there could be many Gambians among the victims, as this is an area of the Bronx where this African community is a majority, and promised that everyone would be buried out of respect for their traditions.
One resident of the building told CNN that the fire alarm was going off frequently and always for no apparent reason, which may have contributed to the fact that today the residents of the 120 apartments in the 19-story building did not take the signal seriously.
In response to a question, the fire chief could not confirm this information, but said his department received an initial warning shortly after the fire. start of fire He arrived at the scene three minutes later.
Two hundred firefighters were Take part in the rescue of residents, who are being taken to nearby hotels and other public buildings, Negro said, noting that his clients continued to evacuate drunk people even after they ran out of air.
Negro told reporters that officials evacuated people “on all floors,” many of whom were in cardiac and respiratory arrest.
fire history
The worst such event ever occurred in the Big Apple in 1911 at a factory in Lower Manhattan, where 146 people died.
“The numbers are shocking,” added Adams, who lived his first major drama in Cairo. mayor term, It started on January 1st.
Today’s fire is the second large-scale fire to occur in less than a week in the United States, after last Wednesday (5) in Residential building in PhiladelphiaIn which 12 people were killed, including eight children.
In the Bronx, firefighters rescued several residents through building windows, as evidenced by photos posted on social media and according to several survivors’ reports to local media.
Wesley Patterson, a 28-year-old man who lives on the third floor of the building, told the New York Times and was rescued via a ladder “I was screaming: Help! Please come get us!”
see also: The South African National Assembly was completely destroyed in the fire
Another resident, Kristal Diaz, told the New York Post that when she started smelling smoke, she put wet towels on the door: “We didn’t know what to do. We looked out the windows and saw all the bodies being pulled out. With sheets.”
“I am terrified by the devastating fire in the Bronx today. My heart goes out to the loved ones of all those we tragically lost, and to all those affected and our heroic firefighters,” New York Gov. Cathy Hochhol said on Twitter. .
Check out the photos below of the fire that left at least 19 people dead in New York:
