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Serenasailor
Veteran Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 1395
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 08, 2007 - 09:20 pm: | 
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8 Kids, 1 Adult Die In Worst NYC Fire In 17 Years
Slideshow: Deadly Apartment Fire In New York
(CBS) NEW YORK A devastating fire swept through a three-story brick house, killing eight children and an adult and leaving several others seriously injured in one of the city's deadliest blazes in years, authorities said.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday that the fire may have resulted from a space heater or an overloaded power strip.
Outside the house, a few blocks from Yankee Stadium, witnesses described seeing the fire shortly before midnight and a woman hurling children through broken windows in hopes of saving them from the inferno.
"All I see is just a big cloud of white dust and out of nowhere comes the first baby," said Edward Soto, who managed to catch two of the children thrown from the window.
All the while, screams of "help me, help me" spread through the three-story home, said Soto, who helped rescue the children with neighbor David Todd, 40.
"They were screaming and yelling, 'Please save my baby.' We ran, I jumped the gate and she started tossing babies out the window," Soto told New York City CBS station WCBS-TV.
One woman threw at least three children from a third floor window to people below. Two were caught, and one hit a discarded bathtub on the sidewalk and died. The woman then jumped and witnesses say she broke her legs.
At least ten people were injured, five of them seriously. Four firefighters and one other emergency worker were hospitalized with minor injuries.
Fire Department spokesman Seth Andrews confirmed the death toll in the Bronx fire early Thursday. At least 10 people were injured, five of them seriously. The injured included four firefighters and another emergency worker who were hospitalized with minor injuries.
The fire burned in the home's basement and first floor. Fire investigators were on the scene Thursday trying to determine the cause.
Fatoumata Madassa, a relative of some of the residents who lives across the street, said four families lived in the building. Many were immigrants from the west African country Mali, she said. Among them were 17 children.
At least one of the families ran an import-export business, according to neighbors. A public records search lists African American Import Export at the address.
"The kids were always playing, either in the yard of their home or on the block with water guns and scooters," said neighbor David Robinson.
Five children ranging in age from 2 to 6 were taken from the burning home to Jacobi Medical Center with smoke inhalation and burns, hospital spokesman Michael Heller said. He said three were in critical condition. One of the victims, an infant, died, he said.
Three other victims -- a woman in her 40s and boys ages 4 and 9 -- were dead when they arrived at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, hospital spokesman Errol Schneer said.
The fire was reported shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday. Firefighters had it under control about two hours later.
Neighbor Elaine Martin said she went outside when she saw the fire and saw a shoeless woman in a nightgown on the street, shivering in the blistering cold and frantically worrying about her children.
"My kids is in there, my kids is in there," Martin quoted the woman as saying.
A smell of smoke lingered around the home hours afterward. Windows of the house were broken out, and parts of the building were charred and scorched. Adding to the misery, the victims were displaced on one of the coldest nights of the year.
Bloomberg said the house fire was the city's deadliest blaze in 17 years, not withstanding the Sept. 11 attacks. In 1990, 87 people died in a fire at an illegal Bronx social club known as Happy Land.
"It's obviously terrible for anyone to perish like this," the mayor said Thursday. "It just seems more painful and more unfair when children die. When children die, everyone around them seems to die a little as well."
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Lil_ze
Veteran Poster
Username: Lil_ze
Post Number: 876
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 08, 2007 - 09:59 pm: |
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any houses that are in that part of the bronx are fire accidents waiting to happen.
that part of the bronx in mostly buildings.
the houses that are there are old, usually have muliple housing code violations, and have WAY too many people living in them.
the people residing there had smoke detectors, but they did not have batteries in them.
there are probably many more houses in the bronx that are one fire away from a tragedy like this happening.
on the news tonight they showed the fire dept handing out smoke detectors to the people in this area.
some of the houses i see in certain areas of the bronx (the houses in the north bronx are in better shape), look like they just need to be condemed.
its a sad story.
hopefully this will be a "wake up call" to the nation about fire prevention, and escape plans in case of fire. |
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