Page 5 - ARUBA TODAY
P. 5
U.S. NEWS A5
Saturday 30 December 2017
Officials: Deadly NYC fire lit by child playing with stove
Police stand guard as paramedics leave the scene near the building Friday, Dec. 29, 2017, where he was asleep and missed ing their front doors to see
more than 10 people died in a fire on Thursday, in the Bronx borough of New York. New York City’s the call. smoke too thick to walk
deadliest residential fire in decades was accidentally lit by a boy playing with the burners on his “If I had picked up the through and descending
mother’s stove, officials said Friday. phone, she would have icy fire escapes with chil-
been over here all day,” he dren in hand. Some es-
(AP Photo/Andres Kudacki) said. “It feels so surreal.” caped barefoot or in their
Excluding 9/11, it was the nightclothes.
deadliest blaze in the city Huddled in a deli on the
since 87 people were killed block with her family, Cris-
at a social club in the same bel Martinez, 10, cried
Bronx neighborhood in Friday as she recalled es-
1990. A fire in a home in caping from her fifth-floor
another part of the Bronx apartment with her three
killed 10 people, including older brothers.
nine children, in 2007. One brother’s girlfriend
The building had roughly was coming into the build-
20 apartments, which were ing when she saw smoke,
home to people from the called him and called po-
U.S. and immigrants from lice. With their mother at
the Dominican Republic work, the siblings checked
and Guinea. and saw the smoke.
About 170 firefighters “Then we got changed
worked in 15-degree and went through the fire
weather to rescue dozens escape,” Crisbel said. She
of people. spent the night at an aunt’s
Residents described open- house.q
By JENNIFER PELTZ granddaughter also died,
DAVID JEANS though the baby’s mother
Associated Press survived.
NEW YORK (AP) — A pre- “The smoke, I guess, over-
schooler toying with the came her. Everything hap-
burners on his mother’s pened so quick,” Batiz said.
stove accidentally sparked He described his sister, a
New York City’s deadliest home care attendant, as a
fire in decades, an inferno selfless person who helped
that quickly overtook an him when he was home-
apartment building and less.
blocked the main escape “I don’t know what to think.
route, the fire commissioner I’m still in shock,” he said.
said Friday. One family lost four mem-
A dozen people died, and bers: Karen Stewart-Francis,
four others were fighting her daughters, 2-year-old
for their lives a day after Kiley Francis and 7-year-
the flames broke out in the old Kelly Francis, and their
century-old building near cousin, 19-year-old Shawn-
the Bronx Zoo. tay Young, relatives said.
The 3½-year-old-boy, his Stewart-Francis’ husband,
mother and another child Holt Francis, was hospital-
were able to flee their first- ized, the family said.
floor apartment. But they “I don’t know what to do,
left the door open behind and I don’t know how to
them, and it acted like a feel,” said Stewart-Francis’
chimney that drew smoke mother, Ambrozia Stewart.
and flames into a stairwell. “Four at one time — what
From there, the fire spread do I do?”
throughout the five-story Young lived in the base-
building, authorities said. ment but had gone up-
At least 20 people scram- stairs to visit Stewart-Francis
bled out via fire escapes in her fifth-floor apartment,
on a bitterly cold night, but said Young’s boyfriend, Ke-
others could not. nyon George.
“People had very little time “The first story I heard is
to react,” Fire Commission- that she was up top . and
er Daniel Nigro said. Fire- she couldn’t get down,”
fighters arrived in just over said George, 19, fighting
three minutes and saved back tears. The two had
some people, but “this loss dated for seven months,
is unprecedented.” and Young had become a
Fernando Batiz said his mother figure to his 1-year-
56-year-old sister, Maria old son, he said. She called
Batiz, and her 8-month-old him Thursday morning, but
