어린이들이 연기에 질식되어 사망한 것 같다. 탈출구 계단에서 사망자가 많이 발생했다고 봄.
화재 발생시, 비상 탈출구를 제대로 만들어놓지 못한 것으로 보인다.
뉴스 요약.
뉴욕시 브롱스 아파트 화재. 어린이 9명을 포함 총 19명 사망자 발생. 32명 병원으로 후송 치료중. 총 63병 부상. 시장 에릭 아담스 '최악의 화재'라고 말함. 화재 원인은 전기 난방기 장치라고 발표. 침실에서 방으로 불이 번졌고, 전체 아파트로 확산함.
사망자 발견지점 아파트 계단. 사망 원인은 심장마비 (cardiac arrest)
50년된 아파트. 120가구. 오래된 건물이어서 화재가 발생한 것은 아닌 것으로 보임.
CNN)A major fire in a residential apartment building in the Bronx in New York City on Sunday left 19
people dead, including 9 children, in what Mayor Eric Adams described as one of the worst fires the city has experienced in modern times.
The blaze sent 32 people to hospitals with life-threatening conditions, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said earlier Sunday.
A total of 63 people were injured.
A "malfunctioning electric space heater" was the source of the fire, Nigro said during a press
conference.
The heater was in the bedroom of an apartment, and the fire consumed the room and then the entire apartment, he said.
The apartment door was left open and smoke spread throughout the building when the residents left their unit, Nigro said.
"This is a horrific, horrific, painful moment for the city of New York, and the impact of this fire is going
to really bring a level of just pain and despair in our city," Adams said.
About 200 members of the New York City Fire Department responded to the fire at the 19-story building at 333 East 181st Street.
The fire began a little before 11 a.m. in a duplex apartment on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building,
the FDNY said.
Firefighters were met by "very heavy smoke, very heavy fire" in the hallways.
FDNY responded to a 5-alarm fire in the Bronx on Sunday.
Victims were found in stairways 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 said.
The FDNY posted several images of the scene showing ladders extending into apartment windows as
well as a number of broken windows.
"This is going to be one of the worst fires that we have witnessed during modern times here in the city of New York," Adams said.
"I am horrified by the devastating fire in the Bronx today," New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Twitter. "My heart is with the loved ones of all those we've tragically lost, all of those impacted and with our heroic FDNY firefighters. The entire State of New York stands with New York City."
The residential apartment where the fire occurred is 50 years old and has 120 units, according to
building records.
There have not been any major building violations or complaints listed against the building, according
to city building records.
Past minor violations were rectified by the property and there were no structural violations listed.
Apartment fire impacts Muslim and immigrant community
The building where the fire took place housed a largely Muslim population, with many immigrants from Gambia, Adams said.
The mayor said that one priority will be to make sure that Islamic funeral and burial rites are respected.
Hochul, appearing at a press conference Sunday, said she met with survivors of the fire, including
a mother who was her family's sole survivor.
"It's impossible to go into that room, where scores of families who are in such grief, who are in pain,
and to see it in the mother's eyes as I held her, who lost her entire family," she said.
As she prepares her new budget this week, Hochul said she will establish a compensation fund to help provide the victims of the fire with money for housing, burial costs and other necessities.
"Tonight is a night of tragedy and pain, and tomorrow we begin to rebuild," Hochul said.
"We rebuild their lives and give them hope, especially those who came all the way from Africa [from]
Gambia in search of a better life right here in this great borough of the Bronx."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also spoke at the conference and said numerous forms of assistance are being examined on the federal level and will include housing and tax assistance as well as and immigration assistance, "so families can be reunited."
