9th January, 2022
No fewer than 19 people, including nine children died on Sunday in a massive fire in Bronx, New York City.
More than 200 firefighters responded to the scene of the five-alarm fire that originated Sunday morning in a duplex apartment on the third floor of a high-rise.
The building is located in the Tremont section of the Bronx.
Over 60 people were injured in the fire, according to the New York City Fire Department.
At least 13 others have life-threatening injuries in Bronx hospitals, officials said.
Many of the injured victims were located on the upper floors, officials said.
The victims likely suffered from severe smoke inhalation, New York City Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro said during a press conference Sunday afternoon.
“This is going to be one of the worst fires we have witnessed here in modern times in the city of New York,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters Sunday.
Dramatic pictures posted to social media show fire gushing out of multiple windows in the building. FDNY began receiving calls from multiple residents on upper floors just before 11 a.m.
The fire has since been put out.
A similar tragedy occurred on Wednesday in Philadelphia, in which 12 members of a family, including eight children died.
Before Sunday’s fire, New York city’s deadliest blaze in more than 25 years also happened in Bronx on 28 December 2017.
It killed 13 people —including a year-old child.
In March 1990, 87 people also perished in a fire in the Happy Land social-club arson attack.