A malfunctioning space heater filled New York’s high-rise Bronx apartment building with smoke on Sunday morning leaving residents in a state of panic and breathlessness.
The blaze killed 19 people, including nine children. Trapped residents broke windows for air as soon as smoke rose from a lower-floor apartment where the fire started.
Victims were found on each floor, some in cardiac and respiratory arrest, while some could not escape due to the volume of smoke. Some residents said that they initially ignored wailing smoke alarms as false alarms were quite common in the 120-unit building built in the early 1970s.
Most of them had severe smoke inhalation – as per a Fire Commissioner. More than five dozen people were hurt, while 13 were hospitalised in critical condition.
The death toll recorded on Sunday was the highest for a fire in the city since the Happy Land social club fire which killed 87 people.
