A major fire in an apartment building in the Bronx in New York City killed at least 19 people Sunday, including nine children.
A total of 63 people were injured in the fire, and 32 were sent to hospitals in “life-threatening conditions,” New York City Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro told reporters. A member of the fire department was also injured. Most of the injuries were caused by smoke inhalation.
Nigro said the 19-story building, at 333 East 181st Street, caught fire around 11 a.m. The fire started in a duplex apartment divided between the second and third floors of the building, authorities said. The door to that unit had been left open, allowing smoke and flames to spread rapidly throughout the building.
About 200 firefighters were at the scene. Nigro said the first teams arrived within minutes and found victims “on all floors and on the stairs” in “cardiac and respiratory arrest.”
“They came across this fire in the hallway, very dense smoke, very dense fire,” Nigro said. “The units pushed. The smoke spread over the entire height of the building, which is very unusual. ”
Authorities said the fire had already been “put out,” meaning that the main part of the fire had been put out. The investigation into the cause of the fire was continuing, but Adams told reporters Sunday night that “it appears this stemmed from a space heater.”
The fire is already one of the deadliest residential fires in recent American history. Another fire in a Philadelphia row house killed a family of 12, including 8 children, on Monday. Authorities are investigating whether the fire was caused by a child playing with a lighter near a Christmas tree.
“The numbers are horrible,” New York Mayor Eric Adams told reporters Sunday afternoon. “This is going to be one of the worst fires we have seen in modern times.”