Death Toll Revised from 19 to 17 in Bronx, New York City 19-Story Apartment Building Fire

Third-deadliest residential fire in US since 1978

New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said Sunday that a fire that killed 19 people, including nine children, was started by a space heater. Watch New York officials give an update on the devastating fire with Mayor Eric Adams, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, and New York Senator Chuck Schumer (CBS News). YouTube Tips ⓘ

Police, firefighters and paramedics from New York responded just before 11:00 a.m. Sunday, January 9, 2022 to a high-rise fire in a 19-story building at Twin Parks North West, 333 East East 181st Street near Tiebout Avenue in the Bronx in New York City. The first report was from a neighbor that heard a smoke alarm and saw smoke.

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UPDATE …

After an admitted double count, NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday, January 10, 2021 that the death toll has been revised from 19 to 17. Initially there was no clarification whether the incorrect count was connects to adults or children or one adult and one child. The initial news release indicated that nine children had died among the those killed at the high-rise apartment fire.

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Firefighters arrived to find smoke coming from the rear of the building. Flames were also visible coming out of a third window when the firefighters came around to the back of the building. Firefighters immediately went to work to rescue people with ladders, and other firefighters led out with hose lines to work to extinguish the fire. When firefighters had water on the fire inside the apartment, the thick black smoke turned whitish gray as water occasionally shot out the window, and as interior firefighters knocked down the fire. The next stage of operations involved finding people in thick smoke, rescuing those people, and bringing the seriously injured to a medical staging area outside of the building. The large medical operation established outside the building involved multiple people needing treatment with CPR and Advanced Life Support prior to transportation to nearby hospitals.

Witnesses recorded video of massive smoke plumes and FDNY rescues during a deadly apartment fire in the Bronx, New York City (ABC 7 New York). YouTube Tips ⓘ

The fire was contained to the original fire unit, which was an apartment unit that spans two floors on the second and third floor of the high-rise building. There were some flames that extended into the hallway. FDNY Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said that the residents that escaped the original fire unit left the door open, allowing the smoke to spread throughout the building. The commissioner said the fire was caused by a portable electric heater located in a bedroom.

BRONX, NY – 5th ALARM Box 3162 after flames showing from a third floor window at the rear of the 19-story building (VIEWER DISCRETION 30:46 total time from FDNY Response Videos). YouTube Tips ⓘ

About 200 firefighters responded to the Twin Parks North West fire. Firefighters rescued victims suffering from severe smoke inhalation on every floor of the building. Some victims were in cardiac arrest or respiratory arrest.

At least nineteen people were killed, including 9 children. Sixty people were injured, including 32 with critical, life-threatening injuries. The apartment fire of January 9, 2022 is the third-deadliest residential fire in the United since 1978, following a 1979 fire in New Jersey that killed 21 people, and a 1982 fire in California that killed 24 people.

There have also been theater or nightclub mass casualty fires where deaths have surpassed the worst residential fires. The most recent mass casualty fire in a nightclub was The Station nightclub on February 20, 2003 in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The band Great White was performing when stage pyrotechnics ignited acoustic foam and caused a fire flashover within one minute. One-hundred people died in the fire and about 230 were injured.

The deadliest single-building fire in United States history was the fire at the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago, which killed at least 602 people on December 30, 1903.

A fire at the Cocoanut Grove in Boston on November 28, 1942 killed 492 people.

A fire at the Rhythm Night Club Fire in Natchez, Mississippi on April 23, 1940 killed approximately 209 people.

A fire at the Beverly Hills Supper Club May 28, 1977 in Southgate, Kentucky killed 165 people.

A fire at the Happy Land in the Bronx, New York City on March 25, 1990 killed 87 people.

A fire at the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, California December 2, 2016 killed 36 people.

Initially there were reports of 63 people injured and 34 sustaining life-threatening injuries at a fire that broke out on the third floor of a 19-story apartment building in the Tremont section of the Bronx Sunday morning, January 8, 2022 (VIEWER DISCRETION on FNTV – FreedomNewsTV). YouTube Tips ⓘ

The apartment building is a federal affordable housing building located in the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx, New York. The building, which is a federally funded building built in 1972, had construction standards that were different than New York City standards, according FDNY Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro.

The 19-story residential building contained 120 apartment units.

Residents describe the ‘traumatizing’ escape from a Bronx building during a horrific fire. Eyewitness News has an update (ABC 7 New York). YouTube Tips ⓘ

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