Very sad. Not being familiar with New York, what does “walk-up apartment building” mean?
Horrible.
Yikes! It couldn’t be much more than 15 degrees there tonight...possibly unsafe use of a space heater.
Rent control, strict zoning codes, anti-landlord laws. Landlords will say F it and won’t do a thing to invest in their properties. Other landlords simply won’t build.
With 12 degree temps outside, this was likely a faulty space heater or someone using their oven to heat the place.
“walk-up apartment”
Unless there were fire-doors, the building was one big chimney - once she caught.
Very sad.
imagine trying to carry the little ones down the fire escape in minus 12 degrees in the dark
prayers for all
These older buildings freak me out because there’s typically no fire control equipment like smoke curtains, sprinklers, or fire doors.
Prayers for those experiencing shattering loss tonight.
RIP.
You’ll probably find an extension cords with what appear to be droplets of copper in the wire itself, that is where the fire started. Ordinary structure fires do not get hot enough to melt copper, but electrically induced heating will(overloaded circuits.shorts,etc)melt copper.
Yahoo says the fire was started by a child playing with the oven.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/york-city-fire-kills-12-sends-residents-scrambling-073528730.html