A major fire in an apartment building in the Bronx borough of New York has left at least 19 people dead and dozens seriously injured. The mayor has called the fire one of the worst in the city’s history.
19 dead, including 4-year-old boy, and dozens injured in Bronx fire
About 200 firefighters have been working to extinguish the flames, which started on the third floor of a nineteen-storey building. According to U.S. media, they have already managed to extinguish it.
The New York Fire Department has reported that about 200 troops have been mobilized to combat the intense flames, according to the newspaper ‘The New York Post’, which indicates that the fatality would be a four-year-old boy.
According to sources of this tabloid one of the fatal victims would be a four-year-old boy.
“They were pulling bodies out of all the floors. It is the worst fire I’ve seen in 30 years,” a firefighter told the Post.
The Uniformed Firefighters Association has denounced the lack of personnel on the trucks that were arriving on the scene.
“There were four firefighters instead of five (on the first truck) because they are understaffed due to the coronavirus,” explained the association’s president, Andrew Ansbro.
“Several of the trucks that arrived first were in the same situation. If there had been sufficient personnel, the fire could have been extinguished earlier and medical care given sooner,” he said.
One of the neighbors, Cristal Diaz, 27, managed to flee the burning building from the 15th floor along with her cousins, her aunt and her dog.
“I was having coffee in the living room when I smelled smoke. We wet towels to put under the doors. It was all crazy,” she said.
Diaz and other witnesses have claimed to have seen several evacuated bodies, a fact that has not been officially confirmed.
The flames apparently started on the lower floors of the tower and the first flames could be seen from the outside in a third-floor window. Firefighters have deployed ladders to try to facilitate the evacuation despite the difficulties caused by the low temperatures.
