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Child Playing With Stove Caused Bronx Fire That Killed 12 Boy Playing With Stove Caused Bronx Fire That Killed 12
(about 2 hours later)
A fire in a Bronx apartment building on Thursday night that killed 12 people, among them four children, was caused by a young child playing with a stove in a first-floor apartment, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday. A Bronx fire that killed 12 people was caused by a 3-year-old boy playing with the burners on a stove, the authorities said on Friday.
“It seems like a horrible, tragic accident,” Mr. de Blasio said in an interview on WNYC radio. “It seems like a horrible, tragic accident,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on WNYC radio.
The fire was the city’s deadliest blaze in more than a quarter-century. The blaze, which killed four children in the five-story building at 2363 Prospect Avenue in Belmont, was the city’s deadliest in more than a quarter-century. It made December the deadliest month for fires in New York City in a decade, said Daniel A. Nigro, the city fire commissioner.
A woman and her two daughters and a niece on the fifth floor were killed when flames from the first floor rushed up the stairwell, filling the passageway with smoke and sending people scurrying down a fire escape. The boy playing with the stove in a first-floor apartment screamed when the fire began, sending his mother rushing into the kitchen as it filled with smoke and flames, Mr. Nigro said. She ran out of the apartment with the boy and a 2-year-old child, but left the door open, allowing fire to shoot out of the kitchen and into the stairwell, Mr. Nigro said.
The woman, Karen Stewart-Francis, 37, and her two daughters, Kylie Francis, 2, and Kelly Francis, 7, and her niece, Shawntay Young, 19, were part of a family from Jamaica that had 13 members living in the building, Ms. Stewart-Francis’s mother, Ambrozia Stewart, said on Friday. “Fire travels up,” Mr. Nigro said. “The stairway acted like a chimney.”
“My daughter. My grandchildren. Tell me, what am I going to do?” Ms. Stewart wailed, standing near the building, 2363 Prospect Avenue in Belmont, about 8 a.m. as a generator and sirens whirred in the background. “Four people I lost.” The passageway filled with smoke and flames, blocking some people from running downstairs and killing others who tried. When firefighters arrived, about three minutes after the first 911 calls, as many as 20 people were scurrying down the fire escape, Mr. Nigro said.
The dead included Karen Stewart-Francis, 37; and her two daughters, Kylie Francis, 2, and Kelly Francis, 7; and her niece Shawntay Young, 19. They were part of a family from Jamaica that had 13 members living in the building, said Ms. Stewart-Francis’s mother, Ambrozia Stewart.
“My daughter. My grandchildren. Tell me, what am I going to do?” Ms. Stewart wailed, standing near the building Friday morning as a generator and sirens whirred in the background. “Four people I lost.”
Her son-in-law, Holt Francis, was in a coma at Jacobi Medical Center, Ms. Stewart said.Her son-in-law, Holt Francis, was in a coma at Jacobi Medical Center, Ms. Stewart said.
A 1-year-old girl and a boy whose age was not given were also among those pronounced dead, the police said early on Friday. Shevan Stewart, a sister of Ms. Stewart-Francis, leaned her head on her mother’s shoulder on Friday morning, tears streaming down her cheeks. She said she had been watching television in her first-floor apartment on Thursday when she heard someone yell “Fire!” and then grabbed her passport and ID before emerging into a wall of smoke.
Another of Ms. Stewart’s daughters, Shevan Stewart, leaned her head on her mother’s shoulder on Friday morning, tears streaming down her cheeks. The younger Ms. Stewart had been watching television in her first-floor apartment on Thursday when she heard someone yell “Fire!” and then grabbed her passport and ID before emerging into a wall of smoke.
From outside, she called a relative in the building. “We kept on calling — call, call, call,” she said. But there was no answer.From outside, she called a relative in the building. “We kept on calling — call, call, call,” she said. But there was no answer.
In a television interview earlier on Friday, Mr. de Blasio said: “We’ve lost 12 people. We could lose more. There are some still fighting for their lives.” None of the names of the others who died have been released. They included a 1-year-old girl, a boy whose age was not given, a 63-year-old woman and a man who died at the scene, and another woman and three men who were pronounced dead at hospitals.
Temperatures were in the teens on Thursday night, and stiff winds made it feel below zero, complicating the task for firefighters. Water leaking from fire hoses froze in streaks on the concrete as displaced residents walked around draped in American Red Cross blankets. Four people remained hospitalized with critical injuries, “fighting for their lives right now,” Mr. de Blasio said.
In addition to the deaths, four people were critically injured and two suffered nonlife-threatening injuries, the authorities said. Temperatures were in the teens on Thursday night, and stiff winds made it feel below zero, complicating the task for firefighters. Water leaking from hoses froze in streaks on the concrete as displaced residents walked around draped in American Red Cross blankets.
The dead included a 63-year-old woman and three unidentified men who were pronounced dead at the scene. In addition to Ms. Stewart-Francis and her niece, Ms. Young, an unidentified woman and an unidentified man were pronounced dead at hospitals. The building had open violations for a broken smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector in a first-floor apartment, according to city records. But Mr. de Blasio said those issues did not appear to be related to the fire.
The five-story apartment building had open violations for a broken smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector in a first-floor apartment, according to Department of Housing Preservation and Development records. But Mr. de Blasio said there did not appear to be problems with the building or violations that could be blamed for the fire. The 12 fatalities made the fire the deadliest since an inferno at the Happy Land Social Club — less than a mile from Thursday’s blaze — killed 87 people in 1990. Thursday’s toll surpassed that of a 2007 blaze in the Bronx caused by an overheated cord that killed 10 people, nine of them children.
The 12 fatalities made the fire the deadliest since an inferno at the Happy Land Social Club — less than a mile from Thursday’s blaze — killed 87 people in 1990. Thursday’s fire surpassed the toll from a blaze in the Bronx that killed 10 people, nine of them children, when an overheated cord on a space heater caused a fire that tore through a four-story house. The first emergency call on Thursday came at 6:51 p.m., and firefighters eventually rescued 12 people.
The first emergency call on Thursday came at 6:51 p.m., and firefighters responded in three minutes, eventually rescuing 12 people. Once flames shot out from the first-floor apartment kitchen and into the stairwell, they raced upstairs.
The fire began on the first floor but quickly spread throughout the building, as the bitter winds fed the flames. The people who died were on multiple floors, the fire commissioner, Daniel A. Nigro, said. “Fire seeks air,” Mr. Nigro said. “People open their windows to get onto the fire escapes and it creates this condition where it brings the fire up the stairs.”
The boy who started the fire had a history of turning on the burners, Mr. Nigro said.
Mr. Nigro said the department gets 75 to 100 referrals a year about children that have issues with playing with or being fascinated by fire.
He stressed that if there is a fire, people need to close their apartment door as they leave to keep flames from spreading.
“Close the door, close the door, close the door,” he said.
The people who died were on multiple floors.