Child with History of Playing with Stove, Behind Deadly Bronx NY Fire

Jamaican News December 29, 2017 – Deadly Bronx NY Fire

Bronx, New York (Mckoy’s News) – The fire that ravaged through a Bronx apartment building, in New York on Thursday, December 28, leaving at least 12 people dead in its aftermath, was started by a toddler playing with a stove, fire officials said on Friday.

Thursday’s Bronx fire is one of New York City’s deadliest fires in over two decades.

According to New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro, Thursday night’s inferno which started in a first-floor apartment, raced up the five-story building’s stairs quickly trapping persons on the floors above. The victims died from burns and smoke inhalation, he said.

Deadly Bronx NY Fire: New York Police officials report that five children are among those killed, including a one-year-old girl. The oldest victim was a 63-year-old woman. Five of the victims are identified as Shantay Young, 19; Karen Francis, 37; Kylie Francis, 2; Charmela Francis, 7; and Maria Batiz, 58.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio warned that the death toll could rise.

Fourteen other tenants of the apartment were injured, including four who are fighting for their lives in hospital, according to New York City Mayor. Six firefighters and an emergency responder were also injured.

Firefighters were on the scene within minutes, Nigro said, but the fast-moving blaze gave persons in the Bronx apartment very little time to react or find an escape route out.

Child with History of Playing With Stove, Behind Deadly Bronx NY Fire

A 3-year-old boy with a “history of playing with the burners and turning them on” caused the fire, New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro told reporters. Before his mother realized what was happening, Nigro said, “this fire had gotten a good hold of the kitchen.”

The commissioner added that the mother of the boy was in her apartment with the boy when the fire started but was not attending to the 3-year-old. By the time she discovered the flames, it was too late. “She exited her apartment with her 2-year-old and 3-year-old and left the door open, so this fire quickly spread up the stairs,” Nigro said.

Deadly Bronx NY Fire: The fire Commissioner cautioned, in a fire always “close the door, close the door, close the door. If unfortunately, you do have a fire in your apartment, you must close the door when you exit because the results if you don’t are what happened here last night.”

The fire which started just before 7 p.m. ET Thursday at the residential building near the Bronx Zoo, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio is recorded as New York’s most tragic fire in over 25 years, since 1990.