This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A fire in a Bronx apartment building that killed 12 people including four children on Thursday night was caused by a child playing with a stove, authorities said, as New Yorkers absorbed horrific details from the city’s worst single loss of life from a fire since the 9/11 attacks.

Four children among 12 dead in New York apartment fire Read more

The flames spread quickly through the kitchen of a first-floor apartment then roared through a door the three-year-old boy’s mother left open as she fled with her two children, New York fire commissioner Daniel Nigro said.

“We were told the boy had a history of playing with the burners and turning them on, and before the mother knew it this fire had gotten a good hold of the kitchen,” Nigro said.

A stairwell acted like a chimney, carrying the flames through the entire five-storey building within minutes and blocking the main escape route.

Many of the victims bodies’ were found in the stairwell and probably died in the three and a half minutes between the first calls to emergency services and the arrival of fire trucks at the 100-year-old apartment block.

“People had very little time to react and they couldn’t get back back down,” Nigro said. “Of those that tried, a few of them perished. Most of the deaths occurred pretty early, some of them before we could arrive.”

One family lost four members: Karen Stewart-Francis; her daughters, two-year-old Kiley Francis and seven-year-old Kelly Francis; and their cousin, 19-year-old Shawntay Young, relatives said. Stewart-Francis’ husband, Holt Francis, was hospitalized, the family said.



“I don’t know what to do and I don’t know how to feel,” said Stewart-Francis’ mother, Ambrozia Stewart. “Four at one time, what do I do?”



Fernando Batiz said his 56-year-old sister, Maria Batiz, and her eight-month-old granddaughter also died, though the baby’s mother survived.

New York mayor Bill De Blasio told CNN that first responders saved at least 12 lives. He later told WNYC that four survivors were still in serious condition. The New York police department said a boy whose age was not given was also among the dead.



At least 20 people were climbing down icy metal fire escapes when firefighters arrived, Nigro said. About 170 firefighters worked in freezing temperatures of 15F (-9.5C).

Witnesses described seeing bodies being carried away on stretchers and young girls who had escaped standing barefoot and without coats outside the building. Fire investigators determined the deaths were caused by a combination of smoke and burns, Nigro said.

The apartment building, in a neighbourhood near Fordham University and the Bronx Zoo, had 25 units, but was not new enough to have been required to have modern-day fireproofing measures such as sprinkler systems and interior steel construction. According to city records, the building had no elevator.

De Blasio told WNYC “there was nothing problematic about the building that contributed to this tragedy” and said: “The reminder is be very, very careful with your children anywhere near a source of fire … keep them away and create as many barriers as possible.”

Play Video 1:07 Bronx fire worst tragedy in 'quarter of a century', says New York mayor – video

At a press conference at the scene, where ashes and water from efforts to bring the blaze under control had frozen into rivers of black ice, the somber fire commissioner acknowledged that children starting fires “was not rare”. Nigro said his department had as many as 100 referrals a year about children who have issues with or are fascinated by fire.

“It’s not unusual but it’s very sad,” he said.

Excluding the 9/11 attacks, it was the worst fire in New York City since 87 people were killed at a social club in the Bronx in 1990. One of New York’s deadliest fires in recent memory happened in the Bronx in 2007. Nine children and one adult died in a blaze sparked by a space heater.

Louis Solar, a local resident, said the neighbourhood was in shock.

“Nobody could do nothing about it,” he told the Guardian. “The fire started from the bottom to the top. Can’t do nothing about it.”

Others said much of the housing stock in the borough was old. “They don’t change nothing,” said Candido Lantigua. “The buildings aren’t safe. They’re more than 100 years old.”