Residents were forced to flee into the sub-zero degree weather
At least 23 people were injured Tuesday when fire raced through a Bronx apartment building, just five days after the worst fire in New York City in 25 years killed 12 people.
None of the injuries in Tuesday’s 7-alarm fire was life-threatening, the Fire Department reported.
“Our units arrived and were immediately faced with heavy fire,” Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. He said 23 people, including one firefighter and at least nine children, were taken to hospitals.
“They will all be OK, thankfully,” Nigro said.
One resident told NBC news he fled the building, barefoot and bare-chested, with his three children into freezing temperatures that dipped as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius.
More than 200 firefighters battled the blaze in bitter cold temperatures, and icicles lined the power lines between the four-story building and the hoses used to douse the flames. The cause of the fire was not immediately revealed.
The building includes three floors of apartments over retail spaces. The fire apparently started in a furniture store, Nigro said.
Barely four minutes after the emergency call, around 200 firefighters arrived in three dozen vehicles at 5.30am at a three-floor, red-brick building close to the Bronx Zoo.
Five hours later, the fire crews were still fighting to control the blaze on the Bronx’s Commonwealth Avenue.
“Praying for a swift recovery for all those injured,” Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted. “Thank you to the @FDNY and our first responders for fighting this fire throughout the night.”
The blaze came five days after a fire at another Bronx apartment building killed 12 people, including four children. The mayor said a child playing with a stove apparently touched off last week’s blaze. Some residents were allowed to return to that building over the weekend to gather belongings. It was not clear when the building would be habitable again.
