at least 19 people dead in the Bronx

(CNN) — A large fire in a residential apartment building in the Bronx in the city of New York on Sunday left 19 people dead, including nine children, Mayor Eric Adams told CNN.

The fire sent 32 people to hospitals with life-threatening conditions, New York City Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro said Sunday. Adams specified that a total of 63 people were injured.

“This is a horrible, horrible, painful time for New York City, and the impact of this fire is really going to bring a level of pain and despair to our city,” Adams said.

About 200 members of the New York City Fire Department were on the scene of the fire at a 19-story apartment building at 333 East 181st Street. The fire started just before 11 a.m. in a duplex apartment on the second and third floors of the building and has been “taken down,” the FDNY said.

The fire started in a duplex apartment on the second and third floors of the building, Nigro said. The door to the apartment was left open and smoke spread to every floor of the building, he said.

Firefighters encountered “very heavy smoke, very heavy fire” in the hallways.

Victims were found on the stairwells on every floor of the building, many in cardiac arrest, in what Nigro said could be an unprecedented loss of life. The injuries were predominantly from smoke inhalation, he noted.

The FDNY released multiple images from the scene at 333 East 181st Street showing ladders extending into apartment windows, as well as multiple broken windows.

Approximately 200 FDNY members are operating on scene of a 5-alarm fire at 333 East 181 Street in the Bronx. There are currently 31 serious injuries to civilians. pic.twitter.com/yrTYwOfonH

– FDNY (@FDNY) January 9, 2022

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