Here's everything we know about how the deadly Bronx fire started, how it spread, and how you can help victims
Building residents can be seen in open windows after firefighters arrived at the scene of the blaze on Sunday morning. Photo: Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News via Getty Images A five-alarm fire at a 120-unit apartment building in the Bronx on Sunday morning left at least 17 people dead, including eight children. More than 60 people were hurt, half of whom suffered life-threatening injuries.
“When you push the door all the way to the edge, it didn’t close by itself,” said Wague, who was in the apartment with his wife and eight kids when the fire started. “It’s very sad. I don’t even remember the door staying open because all I could think about was getting everybody out,” the dad said.
FDNY firefighters at the scene of an intense fire at a 19-story residential building that erupted on Sunday morning in the Bronx. Photo: Scott Heins/Getty Images On Sunday, Representative Ritchie Torres pointed out to the Associated Press that apartment buildings in the Bronx are often more vulnerable to fire. “There’s no guarantee that there’s a working fire alarm in every apartment, or in every common area,” he said. “Most of these buildings have no sprinkler system.
Otisi … said he looked out his window at one point and could see smoke billowing from below. “Once I opened my front door, it was nothing but pitch black smoke,” he said. “There was no way I was going to make it.” He instead stayed in his apartment and wet as many towels as he could to prevent the smoke from filling his home.
Clayton, 61, said she groped her way down a darkened stairway, clutching her dog in her arms. The smoke was so thick and black that she couldn’t see, but she could tell there were other tenants nearby because she heard their panicked wails and crying. Her dog, Mocha, slipped from her arms in the commotion at was later found dead in the stairwell.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Inside the FDNY’s Race to Find the Open Door Fueling a Bronx InfernoFirst they had to find their way through blackness to the right door. Then they had to descend into the inferno roaring up at them.
Read more »
How fleeting choices, circumstances doomed 17 in Bronx fire | AP NewsNEW YORK (AP) — It started as just another January morning, the damp chill prompting a family on the third floor of a drafty Bronx apartment tower to run a space heater for extra warmth, as residents had done countless times before.
Read more »
Bronx apartment fire: City inspectors previously flagged issues with self-closing doorsAs community members in the Bronx mourned the 17 people who died in a high-rise apartment fire, authorities on Tuesday continued investigating how smoke spread so quickly.
Read more »
Smoke Inhalation Killed All 17 Victims in Bronx Apartment BlazeAll 17 victims of the inferno that engulfed a 19-story apartment building in the Bronx were killed by smoke inhalation, the New York City Medical Examiner said.
Read more »
The Bronx Building That Burned Was Supposed to Be Affordable Housing Done RightIt was once an icon of architecture in the public interest. That didn't stop it from becoming a death trap.
Read more »
New York Bronx fire a 'shock in our country' Gambia ambassador saysThe Bronx apartment building that was devastated by a deadly fire Sunday had been a beloved home for many immigrants from The Gambia for years, the West African country's ambassador to the US told CNN.
Read more »