(Reuters) – Thirty-two people were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries from an apartment building fire in The Bronx borough of New York City on Sunday, the city’s fire department commissioner Daniel Nigro told reporters.
The cause of the fire, which broke out around 11 a.m. in the 19-floor building, was not yet known, Nigro said.
“We expect there to be numerous fatalities,” he said. “Members found victims on every floor in stairwells and were taking them out in cardiac and respiratory arrest.”
Nigro said the smoke had spread to every floor of the building, likely because the door to the apartment where it started was left open, and that victims had suffered from significant smoke inhalation.
Some 200 firefighters helped put out the blaze. In addition to the 32 life-threatening injuries, more than 30 others sustained more minor injuries, New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters on Sunday.
“The numbers are horrific,” Adams said. “This is going to be one of the worst fires that we have witnessed during modern times here in the city of New York,” Adams said.
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by Chris Reese)
