Bronx apartment building fire than killed 19 people – including nine kids – caused by SPACE HEATER

New York City’s worst fire disaster in more than 30 years was sparked by a faulty space heater, officials confirmed on Sunday night – killing nine children and ten adults, and leaving dozens more critically injured. 

The five-alarm blaze erupted shortly before 11am on the second and third floor of a 19-story building at 333 East 181st Street in the Bronx. 

FDNY commissioner Dan Nigro said that ‘very heavy’ fire and smoke ‘extended the entire height of the building.’

He confirmed that a space heater caused the blaze.

‘We are investigating where everyone was found, and how the smoke travelled.

‘But marshals have determined that this fire started in a bedroom, in a portable heater.

‘The heat was on in the building. This was being used to supplement the heat.’

Nigro said that the smoke alarms were on, and working, in the 1972-built apartment block. 

‘There were functioning smoke alarms throughout the building,’ he said.

‘The first call was a resident hearing the smoke alarm and reporting it.’

Asked whether people knew how to escape, Nigro said: ‘On buildings like this there are no fire escapes. There are interior stairways. So people would have been aware of the exits.

‘I think some of them could not escape due to the volume of smoke.’  

He added: ‘Members found victims on every floor, in stairwells.

‘The last time we had a loss of life that may be this horrific was a fire which was over 30 years ago, also here in the Bronx,’ he added.  

Commissioner Nigro said the door to the apartment where the fire started was left open, which helped fuel the fire and allowed the smoke to spread. 

‘We’ve spread the word, ‘close the door, close the door,’ to keep a fire contained, he said.  

Julia Fowler, who lives on the ninth floor, told DailyMail.com that a relative told her to flee. 

‘My sister got an alert from Citizen app, she told me it was a fire,’ said Fowler. 

‘When I looked on Citizen app it was behind my building, and that’s when I saw it. 

‘I heard people screaming ‘fire, fire’ – you know, my sister told me don’t go out

‘I was going to open the door, my sister told me not to. They told us to stay inside. 

‘We saw a lot of people run to the ambulance, rushing.’

She said she was unsure if anyone she knows was affected.

‘It looked as if it started from the back of the building. I told my kids to get up, get dressed, just in case. We had the window open, but the smoke was so heavy, we closed it

‘The fire department banged on the door, asked if we were okay, and said stay inside.

‘I have a 10 year-old, he’s asthmatic, He threw up a little bit. He was shaking.

‘We left after fire department said it was safe. Our apartment wasn’t damaged.’ 

Fowler’s daughter Aesha Jones, 28, who lives in Harlem, said she rushed to the scene on hearing about the fire.

‘I wasn’t here, I saw it on the news and I rushed over,’ she told DailyMail.com.

She said she was terrified for her family, but added: ‘Everyone got out safely, thank God.

‘My sister was actually waking up with flames at her window. Thank God she didn’t get contact with smoke inhalation.

‘I spoke to the mayor, he said the mayor’s office is going to order hotels for the families. Red Cross is out too.

‘A couple of my family’s friends passed away, sadly.’ 

Cristal Diaz, who lives in the fifth floor of the building, told the New York Post: ‘We didn’t know what to do. We looked out the windows and saw all the dead bodies they were taking with the blankets.’

Diaz’s niece, 13-year-old Alanny, reportedly saw ‘moms fainting at the sight of their kids dying.’ 

Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, paid tribute to the 200 firefighters who responded to the call.  

‘Their oxygen tanks were empty and they still pushed through the smoke,’ he said.

‘You can’t do this unless you’re attached to the city and the community.

‘And I want to thank them.’

Adams said the whole city was devastated by the loss of life.

‘Nineteen deaths. Nine children, babies, that we lost,’ he said.

‘We’re all feeling this.’

He said the city would provide counseling at the schools which were attended by victims and those caught up in the fire, and said the Red Cross and Office of Emergency Management were working to coordinate housing.

‘It’s so important we have faith leaders here,’ he added, noting that Sheikh Musa Drammeh, a Gambia-born Muslim preacher, was on the scene.

‘It was a large Muslim popular. Many came from Gambia,’ said Adams.

He said they will ‘respect the burial rites of the Muslim community, as well as others.’

A GoFundMe set up by Salim Drammeh, another Gambian community organizer, had raised $16,000 in the first two hours. 

Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, announced that she was setting up a victims’ compensation fund for those affected by the fire.

‘It’s hard to fathom what they are going through,’ she said.

‘We will not forget you, we will not abandon you – we are here for you.

‘Tonight is a night of tragedy and pain, but tomorrow we begin to rebuilt.’

She said it was particularly poignant for ‘those who came all the way from Africa, in search of a better life right here in this great borough.’ 

Adams stressed that anyone who seeks help should be reassured that they will not be handed over to immigration authorities as a result of coming forward. 

‘Your names will not be turned over to ICE or any other institution,’ Adams said, urging those in need to come forward for assistance.

‘It is imperative we get the word out.’ 

Chuck Schumer, a senator for New York, promised to mobilize Washington to help. 

‘We pledge to do whatever we can at the federal level,’ he said.

‘New Yorkers are united. When there is a tragedy, we stand together.

‘We come together, we embrace each other, and we stand with our brothers and sisters.’

 Harrowing stories were beginning to emerge on Sunday of escape through the burning building.

‘We tried to go down through the stairs but there was a lot of smoke, so we had to stop at the sixth floor and we were able to get into a neighbor’s home. We stayed there until the firefighters came and they were able to guide us out of the building,’ a woman told DailyMail.com. 

‘You couldn’t see anything. It was pitch-black,’ she said, adding that her three-year-old daughter had been momentarily missing amid the chaos.  

The fire at the Twin Parks North West complex quickly progressed. At the scene, firefighters could be seen pulling desperate victims out of windows. 

A hazardous material team was requested to retrieve a lithium ion battery. Fire Marshalls are investigating. 

More than 200 firefighters across the borough responded to the scene. 

The FDNY said icy conditions made it difficult for firefighters to put out the blaze.

‘The impact of this fire is going to really bring a level of pain and despair in this city,’ Adams said during a press conference early on Sunday, shortly after the blaze was extinguished. 

‘The numbers are horrific. We have over 32 people who are life-threatening at this time. This is going to be one of the worst fires we have witnessed in the City of New York in modern times.’ 

Nineteen were treated at the scene and 35 others have been taken to nearby hospitals, many of whom are in serious conditions, officials said.   

The death toll of Sunday’s fire is set to become the worst in 30 years for New York City, second only to the Happy land club fire in 1990, in which 87 people died after an arsonist used $1 worth of gasoline to set the club on fire. 

News photographers at the scene captured images of firefighters entering the upper floors of the burning building on a ladder, multiple limp children being given oxygen after being carried from the building and evacuees with their faces covered in soot.  

Sunday’s blaze came just days after a Philadelphia house fire killed 12 people, including eight children.

That was the deadliest fire at a U.S. residential apartment building since 2017, when 13 people died in an apartment in the Bronx, according to data from the National Fire Protection Association.

That fire started after a three-year-old boy was playing with stove burners.

The deadliest fire prior to that was in 1989 when a Tennessee apartment building fire claimed the lives of 16 people. 

The commissioner added that the apartment where the fire originated had its door opened, allowing for the blaze to spread throughout the building. 

‘This is a horrific, horrific, painful moment for the City of New York,’ Adams said.    

Diaz said she fled her apartment upon learning about the fire. 

‘I was drinking coffee in the living room and I started smelling smoke. We started putting water on towels and the bottom of the door. Everything was crazy,’ Diaz told the Post.  

‘We saw a bunch of bodies coming out. People from my childhood were dying,’ her niece, Alanny added. 

Twitter user Hennessy Castillo recounted on the platform her escape from the blaze.

‘I was there, I made It out safely, but I could barely breath, I have asthma and I am very happy that I made it out safely, but I don’t know what started the fire, all I know is that I heard a lot of people screaming for help, some windows were broken but some people were fainted,’ Castillo tweeted.