Three children were killed and three people were injured in a fire that broke out at a building in the Bronx Friday night, the Fire Department said.
The fire, which began just before 8 p.m., occured in a six-story building at 64 West 165th Street at Anderson Avenue and centred on Apt 2C, according to The New York Times.
Three children, siblings Elijah Artis, 5; Jeremiah Artis, 2; and Michael Turner, 4 months, were pronounced dead upon arriving at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, police said. All three had been in Apt. 2C. A 25-year-old woman with two small girls, ages 4 and 4 months, were treated for smoke inhalation and are in stable condition.
Firefighters and almost a dozen fire trucks, working over a stretch of two blocks, controlled the fire by 10:30 p.m. The fire did not leave evidence on the building's facade except for a blacked out window, but neighbors report a traumatic scence.
Yvonne Laracuente, 27, who was nearby, heard a woman let out a loud scream. "It was a yell," she said. "She was screaming 'my babies.' " When Laracuente and her friends ran toward the sound of the scream, they saw a woman clad only in a T-shirt on the fire escape of the building, holding a toddler.
She said that two men pulled down the fire-escape ladder and helped the woman and the child climb down.
Laracuente said she tried to enter the building, but could not due to thick smoke. She said that one of her friends helped rescue a small child.
The cause of the fire is not known, and police and officials are currently investigating.
Valerie Frazier, 47, a resident of the building and a friend of the 25-year-old woman, said the electricity in Apt. 2C had been turned off, so the residents were using candles.
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