NEW YORK — New York Mayor Eric Adams warned Monday that the death toll could rise from this weekend’s horrific apartment building fire in the Bronx.
Nineteen people, including nine children, are already dead from Sunday’s blaze, but Adams said his team fears that tragic toll could tick up as several victims remain hospitalized in critical condition.
“We believe, unfortunately, that it may,” Adams said on CNN. “We pray to God they are able to pull through.”
It was not immediately clear how many victims were in critical condition Monday. FDNY officials said Sunday that medics rushed 32 people with life-threatening injuries and three with serious injuries to five local hospitals.
The five-alarm fire erupted in a 19-story apartment tower in Fordham Heights around 11 a.m. Sunday after a space heater malfunctioned in the bedroom of a second-floor apartment, according to FDNY officials.
The fire, which ranks as the deadliest in the city since the 1990 blaze at the Bronx’s Happy Land social club, quickly tore through the building and caused thick black smoke to fill up hallways and apartment units.
Adams said FDNY investigators are looking into the possibility that some of the building’s self-closing doors weren’t operating properly, allowing the smoke to travel at a rapid clip and trapping victims in their homes.
By law, apartment buildings in the city must have self-closing hallway doors.
FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said at a Sunday press conference that the devastated Bronx building may not have been up to fire code in certain respects, though he acknowledged it was built in the 1970s, when such laws were different.
Investigators are also scrutinizing reports that the building had malfunctioning fire alarms that would go off regularly for no reason, making residents ill-prepared for Sunday’s tragedy.
“This is a wake-up call for all of our buildings,” Adams said.
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