New York City apartment building fire kills 19, injures dozens

Emergency personnel from the FDNY provide medical aid as they respond to an apartment building fire in the Bronx borough of New York City, US, Jan. 9, 2022. (REUTERS/Lloyd Mitchell)

Nineteen people were killed, including nine children, and dozens of others were injured from an apartment building fire in The Bronx borough of New York City on Sunday, according to city officials and local media.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams confirmed that 19 people had died from the blaze that broke out around 11 a.m. (10 p.m. PST) in a 19-floor apartment building.

Earlier on Sunday, officials said that 32 people had been hospitalized with life-threatening injuries and some 60 people were injured in total.

“Right now we have 19 people confirmed dead and we have several more that are in critical condition,” Adams said in an interview with CNN.

Nine of the dead were children, the New York Times reported.

Some 200 firefighters helped put out the blaze. Its cause was not immediately known, the city’s fire department Commissioner Daniel Nigro told reporters at a Sunday news briefing.

“Members found victims on every floor in stairwells and were taking them out in cardiac and respiratory arrest,” he said.

Nigro said the smoke had spread to every floor of the building, likely because the door to the apartment where it started was left open, and that victims had suffered from significant smoke inhalation.

ATM