UPDATE:
Investigators are trying to determine why safety doors failed to close in a New York City high-rise when a deadly fire broke out.
The failures allowed thick smoke to billow through the tower and kill 17 people, including eight children, in the city's deadliest blaze in more than three decades.
Fire officials determined that an electric space heater started the fire Sunday in the 19-story building in the Bronx.
The flames damaged only a small part of the building, but smoke poured through the apartment’s open door and turned stairwells into death traps.
The stairs were the only method of escape in a building too tall for fire escapes.
Dozens of people were hospitalized, including several in critical condition. Mayor Eric Adams called it an “unspeakable tragedy” at a news conference near the scene Monday.
Adams lowered the death toll from an initial report Sunday, saying that two fewer people were killed than originally thought.
----
Nineteen people, including 9 children, have been killed in an apartment fire in New York City, in what the city’s fire commissioner called one of the worst blazes in recent memory.
According to the fire commissioner, a malfunctioning electric space heater was the cause.
A senior adviser to Mayor Eric Adams confirmed the total death toll Sunday to The Associated Press, while a city official who was not authorized to speak publicly confirmed the number of children dead.
Dozens of people were injured in the Bronx fire, and at least 13 people were still in critical condition.
According to the FDNY, approximately 200 firefighters responded to the scene Sunday at the Twin Park apartments.
