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(Trends Wide) — Residents who survived the tragic fire at an apartment building in the Bronx in New York, which claimed the lives of at least 17 people, begin the arduous process of putting their lives back together. Meanwhile, the authorities are looking for long-term solutions to ensure that a similar tragedy never happens again.
“The two values that matter most to all of us are our family and our homes. And losing both in the span of a single tragedy is so terrifying and traumatic that few of us can imagine it,” said Ritchie Torres, a representative of the area where the fire happened, told Trends Wide on Monday.
At least eight children died in the fire this Sunday. A Trends Wide review of local hospitals shows that at least eight patients remain hospitalized in connection with the fire, while at least 25 people have received treatment and been released.
Many of those who died or were rushed to the hospital were affected by smoke from a fire inside a duplex unit on the second and third floors of the 19-level apartment building.
A faulty electric heater inside a bedroom sparked the fire, New York Mayor Eric Adams said Monday. When residents left the burning unit, the door to the apartment was left open, allowing the flames to spread, said Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro.
The fire was contained in that corridor, but the smoke spread upwards and covered much of the building. The doors were supposed to close automatically, but both the one to the apartment and the one to the stairway to the 15th floor didn’t work properly, Nigro said Monday.
The building’s doors and smoke alarms, which were failing according to some reports, are the main focus of the investigation, Nigro said.
The building’s construction conditions will also be an issue to be investigated by a new task force made up of federal, state and local leaders. The group says it will focus on policies and possible laws that can prevent more tragedies.
Torres announced the creation of the task force on Monday, along with Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson and local councilmembers Oswald Feliz and Pierina Sánchez.
“There are underlying issues that we deal with every day with fire alarms, sprinkler systems and outlets, heat and hot water. And the basic necessities that all New York City residents and renters must have,” Gibson said.
The focus on legislation is one part of a four-pronged plan leaders have outlined. The project also includes ensuring permanent housing for those whose units were destroyed and that the displaced can return to their homes as soon as possible. As well as providing the necessary services for those affected.
In addition to investigating the enforcement of New York laws requiring self-closing doors, Torres said the group would also explore whether current minimum heating requirements are sufficient. The Bronx building’s heat appeared to be working, Torres added, but residents still felt the need to use space heaters to maintain temperatures.
Built in 1972, the building was funded by the federal government, so it could be built outside of New York City’s fire code, Nigro said Sunday. But he added that this is unlikely to have been a factor in the fire.
At a news conference Monday, representatives of the New York Firefighters Union confirmed that the building was not required to comply with the city’s fire codes.
“We need to make it clear in federal law that federal developments, federally regulated and subsidized developments, must be subject to local fire codes, housing codes and building codes. All Americans have access to safe housing.” and affordable, including fire-safe housing, Torres told Trends Wide’s Jim Sciutto.
Survivors describe how they battled thick smoke from the New York fire
Residents of the 120-unit building mentioned that fire alarms frequently failed at the site. So when they rang this Sunday morning, Daisy Mitchell “didn’t pay attention to them,” she told Trends Wide.
But then Mitchell’s husband started smelling smoke in their 10th-floor unit and they ran into a heavy cloud when they went outside to investigate.
“I went to the stairs, I opened the door, he just pushed me back [a] the house,” he added. “If I had stayed out there for another three seconds, I would have died too,” he added.
Karen Dejesus lives on the same floor as the apartment where the fire occurred and said the flames have engulfed her residence.
“I could see the flames, I could see the smoke and everything, you know, coming into my apartment,” Dejesus said.
Dejesus said firefighters broke down her door to rescue her, her granddaughter and her son. They had to climb out a window to escape the flames.
She also mentioned that the fire alarms in the building went off frequently.
“A lot of us were used to hearing the fire alarm go off. So it was business as usual for us,” he said. “It wasn’t until I saw the smoke coming through the door that I realized it was a real fire. And I heard people yelling ‘help help help’.”
Mamadou Wague said he was startled awake on Sunday morning by the sound of his children yelling: “Fire! Fire!”
Wague lives on the third floor of the building with her eight children, who range in age from 6 months to 18 years.
His family was unable to flee the building because there was too much smoke, he said. Terrified, they waited in a neighbor’s apartment, putting wet towels under the doors, until firefighters arrived 15 to 30 minutes later to take them downstairs.
Wague, an Uber driver who immigrated to the United States from Mali in 2000, said the fire burned all of his family’s belongings.
“Everything was destroyed in my apartment,” he said. “Everything is gone.”
The Red Cross provided emergency housing for 22 families, comprising 56 adults and 25 children, the group said in a statement.
“Worried and devastated”
Authorities have not released the names of those who died, but those who still have no news of their loved ones fear the worst.
Yusupha Jawara told Trends Wide that she has been trying to contact her brother and sister-in-law ever since she found out about the fire. But they don’t answer their phones, he said.
“I am totally worried and devastated. Not just me, but the whole community and family in general. Everyone is worried. We don’t know what happened… That’s the hardest thing: not knowing,” Jawara told Trends Wide.
Nfamar Kebe said that at least one of his relatives died in the fire and that his nephew’s 2-year-old son is hospitalized and fighting for his life.
But Kebe, who came to the US from Guinea 35 years ago, said the building and community are home to many West African immigrants who have become part of his extended family.
“We are one community,” he says. “When we meet here, we are the same family.”
Many of those in the building were Muslim immigrants from the West African nation of Gambia. The country’s ambassador told Trends Wide that the building had been a beloved home to many immigrants over the years.
“I think a lot of the Gambians who came here stayed there before moving elsewhere,” Ambassador Dawda Docka Fadera said. This was kind of a first port of call, this building. It is a building that Gambians are very attached to,” he added.
Trends Wide’s Taylor Romine, Tami Luhby, Catherine E. Shoichet, Brynn Gingras, Bonney Kapp and Mirna Alsharif contributed to this report.
