New York, New York (WNews) – At least 19 people, including nine children, died in a fire Sunday at a Bronx apartment building in one of the worst blazes in New York City in decades, officials said.
Mayor Eric Adams called the deadly fire’s toll “horrific.”
“This is going to be one of the worst fires that we have witnessed during modern times,” he said.
More than five dozen people were injured and 13 people were still in critical condition in the hospital, Ringel said. The majority of victims were suffering from severe smoke inhalation, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said at a press conference earlier that afternoon.
Firefighters “found victims on every floor and were taking them out in cardiac and respiratory arrest,” he said at an afternoon briefing. “That is unprecedented in our city. We expect there to be numerous fatalities.”
According to the FDNY, approximately 200 firefighters responded to the scene Sunday at the Twin Park apartments, a 19-story building on East 181st Street.
Nigro compared the severity of the fire to the Happy Land social club fire, which killed 87 people in 1990 when man set fire to the building after getting into an argument with his former girlfriend and being thrown out of the club.
