A fire Sunday at a high-rise apartment complex in New York killed 17 people, eight of them children.
According to investigators, safety doors failed to close when the fire broke out in the building — which was built in 1973 as part of a project to build modern, affordable housing in the Bronx — but it’s unknown why.
A malfunctioning electric space heater apparently started the fire in the 19-story building, fire officials said. The flames damaged only a small part of the building, but smoke poured through the apartment’s open door and turned stairwells into dark, ash-choked death traps. The stairs were the only method of escape in a tower too tall for fire escapes.
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the apartment’s front door and a door on the 15th floor should have been self-closing and blunted the spread of smoke, but the doors stayed fully open. It was not clear if the doors failed mechanically or if they had been intentionally propped open.
The heavy smoke blocked some residents from escaping and incapacitated others as they tried to flee, fire officials said. Victims, many in cardiac and respiratory arrest, were found on every one floor. Firefighters carried out limp children and gave them oxygen and continued making rescues even after their air supplies ran out.
Glenn Corbett, a fire science professor at John Jay College in New York City, said closed doors are vital to containing fire and smoke, especially in buildings that do not have automatic sprinkler systems.
An investigation was underway to determine how the fire spread and whether anything could have been done to prevent or contain the blaze, Nigro said.
A fire department official said the space heater had been running for a “prolonged period” before the fire began. What caused it to malfunction remains under investigation, spokesman Frank Dwyer said. Fire then spread quickly to nearby furniture and bedding, Dwyer said.
Nigro said the heat was on in the building before the fire started, and the space heater was being used to supplement it.
Large, new apartment buildings are required to have sprinkler systems and interior doors that swing shut automatically to contain smoke and deprive fires of oxygen, but those rules do not apply to thousands of the city’s older buildings.
The building was equipped with self-closing doors and smoke alarms, but several residents said they initially ignored the alarms because they were so common in the 120-unit building.
In Jacksonville, the city has had its history of fire safety issues in apartment buildings. In a 2017 I-TEAM investigation, News4JAX found multiple complexes around town that had safety violations, following a fire at a complex on Philips Highway.
News4JAX on Monday spoke with Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Division Chief Kevin Jones, who oversees inspections.
“If it’s an apartment where they have tenants, if it’s vacant, we have an opportunity to go into a vacant unit. We don’t go into a unit that’s occupied. We check for smoke detectors, fire extinguishers. High-rise buildings, they are required by the state of Florida to have a fire suppression system,” Jones said.
Jones said Jacksonville and Florida have strict regulations for buildings over 75 feet tall — things like working smoke detectors, multiple escape routes and self-closing doors that don’t allow smoke to flow.
“What we find a majority of the time is that you may find fire alarm panels or sprinkler systems that are outdated that require an annual inspection,” Jones said.
Complexes get a maximum of 30 days to fix problems.
Also on Monday, News4JAX stopped by a few complexes around Jacksonville, specifically ones where residents complained about general problems. Fortunately, as far as fire safety, all the residents who News4JAX spoke with said they felt safe.