New York: A major fire engulfed a residential apartment building in New York on Sunday, killing at least 19 people, including nine children.
No less than 32 persons suffered serious injuries in the incident.
A malfunctioning electric heater reportedly caused the fire in the 120-unit building in the Bronx borough of the city.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams confirmed 19 people had died from the blaze that broke out around 11 am in a 19-floor apartment building. Around 200 firefighters were pressed into service to douse the flames.
Flames shot from the apartment windows as smoke filled the building till the 12th floor. The building was built in 1973 as part of a project to build modern, affordable housing in the Bronx.
This is being called one of the most disastrous fires in the city in many decades.
It was way back in 1990 that a blaze at the Happy Land social club killed 87 people when a man set fire to the building after getting into an argument with his former girlfriend and being thrown out of the Bronx club.
Sunday’s death toll is the highest in a US residential apartment building since 2017 when 13 people died in a building, also in the Bronx, according to data from the National Fire Protection Association.
The incident happened just days after 12 people, including eight children, were killed in a house fire in Philadelphia.
The deadliest fire prior to that was in 1989 when a Tennessee apartment building fire claimed the lives of 16 people.
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