At least 19 people died in a fire in a block of flats in New York – VG

Just updated

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The New York Fire Department is reporting a major fire in a 19-story apartment building in the Bronx district of New York City. At least 63 people are injured, writes NBC.

At least 32 people were transported to at least five different hospitals with life-threatening injuries.

“This is going to be one of the worst fires we have witnessed in modern times in New York,” said Mayor Eric Adams during a news conference.

According to AP at least 19 died. Several of them will be children. This is confirmed by the rapporteur.

New York Fire Commissioner Dan Nigro says he expects “many dead.” Most of the injured have ingested a lot of smoke, he says.

Firefighters found injured people on almost every floor in the block, many had cardiac and respiratory arrest. Around 200 firefighters work on site.

– People were trapped in their apartments throughout the building. It is unusual for the smoke to extend over the entire length of the building, says Nigro.

VG on site: Major damage

When VG is on site a little before 16.00 local time, the police have blocked off the streets towards the building.

Some windows on the block have been broken, including windows that extend several floors upwards. From some windows hang carpets that may indicate that there are people who have tried to get out.

VG’s journalist on site also describes that there is major damage to the building.

There are still a lot of firefighters and police on site.

VG meets Julia Fowler at the building. She lives on the ninth floor and got out safely with her family.

– I was at home with the family and we smelled smoke, she says and goes on to say that they first covered the doors with towels.

Eventually she got out with the children. Her two cats escaped.

As they walked down the floor, it was dark, wet and full of glass, Fowler describes.

– I tremble, but thanks to God we are ok. It could have been much worse, she says to VG.

Outside the building, Tiffany Diaz is also standing with her son Mason. They live on the ground floor. Diaz was cooking when she suddenly smelled strong smoke.

She goes out and sees large amounts of smoke.

– I got scared and took my son and went out.

Only then did she see that it was burning.

She has been told that now that the fire has been extinguished she can re-enter the apartment, but has not done so yet.

– I’m still a little scared, she says.

Difficult extinguishing work

The fire service received reports of the fire shortly before 11 am local time, and is in place to investigate the cause of the fire.

Fire investigators believe that the fire started in an apartment on the second and third floors of the building. The door to the apartment was left open, so that the fire spread throughout the building.

Several of the apartments in the apartment block have been converted into smaller dormitories, and that made the extinguishing work difficult, says a spokesman for the fire service.

Almost 32 years ago, the same neighborhood in New York saw one of its worst fires in which 87 lives were lost.

The Bronx is one of five boroughs in New York City, and is the poorest of the five boroughs.

On Wednesday, 13 people died when a fire broke out in a municipal apartment block in Philadelphia in the USA on Wednesday this week. Seven of them were children.

It was the deadliest fire in Philadelphia in more than 100 years, writes ABC 6.

The fire may have started when a five-year-old was playing with a lighter, which may have set fire to a Christmas tree. There are said to be four smoke alarms in the building, which are owned by Philadelphia’s housing authorities, but none of them were in use.

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