NY - 12+ dead, 15 injured in apartment block fire, Bronx, 28 December 2017

At least 12 people have been killed, including a one-year-old child, and 15 others were injured in a blaze that ripped through a Bronx apartment building.

Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed during a press conference that four of the 15 injured are in critical condition and fighting for their lives at a local hospital.

'This is the worst fire tragedy we have seen in this city in at least a quarter century,' de Blasio said, adding that the fire will rank as one of the 'worst losses of life to a fire' in many years for the city.

New York City Fire Department photos showed ladders stretched to the roof of the five-story building. About 170 firefighters worked in bone-chilling cold, just 15 degrees, to rescue people from the building. Water sprayed from hoses froze into ice on the street.

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MelmothTheLost said:

Other reports on this story:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...lled-baby-blaze-mayor-de-blasio-a8132621.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/28/us/bronx-fire/index.html

It's going to be interesting to see how the investigation develops vis a vis the Grenfell Tower fire. A lot of the criticism there surrounded the lack of fire escapes, yet here we see a catastrophic appartment building fire where there were fire escapes but many people still died.

I'd also hazard a guess that because of the Christmas season there will have been visitors staying with friends and family in the building so there may be some delays in identifying who exactly was in the building.

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A massive apartment fire that killed at least 12 people -- including a 1-year-old girl found with her mother in a bathtub -- was sparked by a small child playing with a stove, city officials said.

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Seven adults and five children died from the fire, including five who weren't able to evacuate the burning building. Another four people who were critically injured in the blaze and hospitalized "are seriously fighting for their lives," the fire commissioner said.

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Emmanuel Mensah was a handsome, strongly built young man in his late 20s who immigrated to the Bronx from Ghana five years ago. He joined the Army National Guard but returned to his apartment on Prospect Avenue in December, after graduating from boot camp with the rank of private first class.

And on Thursday night, he lost his life trying to save people from his furiously burning apartment building, one of 12 people to die in the blaze.

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MelmothTheLost said:

Bronx fire: Hero soldier who rescued four from inferno was killed trying to save one more




http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...d-four-died-trying-to-save-more-a8134371.html

Stand easy, soldier. You did your duty to the end.

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MelmothTheLost said:

Bronx fire: Hero soldier who rescued four from inferno was killed trying to save one more




http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...d-four-died-trying-to-save-more-a8134371.html

Stand easy, soldier. You did your duty to the end.

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A fire broke out on the ninth floor of a 12 storey tower block in Manchester's Northern Quarter.

Flames and smoke spread to several floors of the building and a 23-year-old was taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.

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