Twelve people died Thursday in worst fire ever New York since 1990, except September 11, 2001. Among them, three granddaughters of 1, 3 and 7 years old as well as a 7 year old boy.
The fire started around 7 p.m. (1 hour in Paris) in an apartment building in the Bronx district, near the Zoo, one of the most popular places in the city. According to the city’s fire chief, Daniel Nigro, the fire started in a kitchen on the ground floor. “It was triggered by a three-and-a-half-year-old child playing with the stove. The fire started and the mother was unaware of it. She was alerted by the cries of the child, ”continued Daniel Nigro.
The stairway acted like a chimney. It took the fire so quickly upstairs that people had very little time to react. They couldn’t get back down the stairs. Of those that tried, a few perished. Others were helped out onto the fire escapes, taken down by our members -Comm Nigro
– FDNY (@FDNY) December 29, 2017
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The mother then fled the apartment with her two children, aged two and three, leaving the door open. “The staircase turned into a fireplace” and the fire quickly spread from the ground floor to the four floors of this brick building like there are thousands of in New York. The building had 25 apartments. “I have a sad duty to tell you that 12 New Yorkers have died, including a one-year-old child,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio, who immediately attended the scene. “We risk losing more people,” he said during a press briefing. There are four very seriously injured people struggling with death and other serious injuries as well. It is the worst fire that we have seen in this city in at least a quarter of a century, ”he said.“A tragedy without a doubt historical”
“This tragedy is undoubtedly historic in its magnitude,” confirmed Daniel Nigo. We are shocked by this loss, ”he added when 160 of his men were mobilized.
Firefighters managed to take 12 people to safety, but searches of the building are continuing. “People have died on different floors, and their ages range from a year to over 50,” said Daniel Nigo.
According to several media reports, two of the deceased were found in a bathtub filled with water in which they appear to have tried to take refuge to escape the flames.
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New York fire in Bronx kills at least 12
The cold complicated the work of the emergency services
A nearby school has been turned into an emergency reception center for residents of the building as the thermometer reads -10 ° C. The cold made the work of the firefighters more difficult.
Ten days ago, a woman and her three children died in a house fire in Brooklyn, another New York neighborhood. In March 2007, ten people were killed, already in the Bronx, in the fire of a house which sheltered two Malian families. It was then the worst fire that the city had known since 1990, excluding the attacks of September 11, 2001 where 2,600 people had died.
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