NEW YORK : Doctors raced Monday to save the lives of people who were knocked out or trapped in their apartments by a fire that sent smoke billowing through a New York City high-rise. Nineteen people, including nine children, died in the blaze.
Dozens of people were hospitalized, including several in critical condition, after Sunday’s fire in the Bronx, which was already the city’s deadliest in three decades. Mayor Eric Adams told that the death toll could rise.
“We pray to God that they’ll be able to pull through,” he said.
Investigators determined that a malfunctioning electric space heater, plugged in to give extra heat on a cold morning, started the fire in the 19-story building.
The flames damaged only a small part of the building, but smoke poured through the apartment’s open door and turned stairwells — the only method of escape in a building too tall for fire escapes — into dark, ash-choked horrors.
Adams said the building had self-closing doors and that investigators were looking into whether a door malfunctioned.
Building resident Sandra Clayton grabbed her dog Mocha and ran for her life when she saw the hallway fill with smoke and heard people screaming, “Get out! Get out!”
Clayton, 61, said she groped her way down a darkened stairway, clutching Mocha. The smoke was so black she couldn’t see, but she could hear neighbors wailing and crying nearby.
