Victims were found in every layer of the brick building. Smoke rose to the top of the 19-storey building after a fire broke out in a duplex apartment on the second and third floors, according to firefighters.
New York City officials said the fire was caused by a faulty heater in an apartment. “On the basis of physical evidence and the first testimonies of residents, the fire broke out from a bedroom and a backup heater,” city fire official Daniel Negro told a news conference.
After the fire broke out in a duplex apartment located on the second and third floors, “the firefighters found themselves facing fires burning in the corridors: heavy smoke and very intense fire,” Negro explained.
Smoke engulfed the entire building, and “firefighters found victims on every floor and evacuated them in cases of cardiac arrest and respiratory failure,” said Negro.
In turn, New York Mayor Eric Adams, who attended the scene, said live: “This will be one of the worst fires in our history. We know that we have 19 people killed and many others in critical condition and more than 63 injured.” Adams later confirmed on Twitter that there were nine minors among the dead.
The new mayor, an African-American former policeman who took office on Jan. 1, spoke of a “real tragedy for the city, not just the Bronx.”
‘horrific’ novels
Scenes broadcast on social media showed massive fires and thick black smoke rising from the window of a multi-storey building in the sprawling Bronx neighborhood in northern New York.
One of the building’s residents, Delaney Rodriguez, 38, and her entire family, survived the fire, but were “crushed” by what she saw and heard.
“A lot of children were crying and screaming for help,” she told AFP television, as she heard them from her window, which she opened to avoid suffocation.
Miguel Enrique, another resident on the 11th floor of the building with asthma, told AFP that he grabbed a coat and “goed down the elevator” because the hall was black with smoke.
George King, a resident of a nearby building, told AFP of a scene of “chaos”, saying he “saw a lot of people and they panicked.”
200 firefighters
The firefighters who were called to the scene at about 11:00 (16:00 GMT) had indicated in a previous toll that 30 people had been injured, before the temporary death toll later rose to 19 dead.
Two hundred firefighters entered this building and controlled the fire within two hours.
“It’s really a terrible day for us,” said Adams, a centrist Democrat elected on a platform to combat crime and economic and social inequality in New York.
Last Wednesday, a fire in an apartment building in Philadelphia killed 12 people, including eight children.
New York, home to about nine million people, suffers from a housing crisis in many of its neighborhoods, in addition to the aging of several buildings and their lack of necessary maintenance.
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