A fire in a Bronx apartment building has claimed at least 19 New Yorkers' lives, including nine children.
It's unknown if the death toll will rise further. At this hour, doctors at nearby hospitals are working frantically to save the lives of those who remain critically injured.
According to reports, thick smoke turned stairwells into ash-filled death traps. Even New York City firefighters struggled to make their way through the building with self-contained breathing apparatuses.
Yet they continued their rescue efforts long after their oxygen ran out.
NBC New York further reports:
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 on 181st Street early Sunday afternoon. A door left open in the burning apartment fueled the spread of flames and ultimately the devastating loss of life and property.
The flames damaged only a small part of the building, but smoke escaped through that open door and billowed through stairwells and halls, trapping many people in their apartments and incapacitating others as they fled. Most of the deaths were due to smoke inhalation, and many of those victims were found in hallways.
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An investigation into whether the extent of the tragedy could have been contained is underway, but fire and elected officials say the FDNY and other first responders did everything possible, risking their own lives, to minimize the loss of life.
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Large, new apartment buildings in the city are required to have sprinkler systems and interior doors that swing shut automatically to contain smoke and deprive fires of oxygen, but those rules don't apply to thousands of the city's older buildings.
