(New York) Treize personnes, dont sept enfants, sont mortes dans un incendie touchant un petit immeuble d’habitations en plein centre de Philadelphie, dans l’est des États-Unis, ont annoncé les pompiers de la ville mercredi.
« Pour l’instant, le bilan est de 13 (morts) », a déclaré un représentant des pompiers sur place, Craig Murphy, en précisant que sept enfants faisaient partie des victimes.
« C’était terrible, […] This is a terrible record, “he said during a live press briefing on Twitter. “It’s one of the worst fires I’ve ever seen,” he said in his 35-year practice.
Photo by Matt Roork, Associated Press
Philadelphia firefighters arrived at the scene around 6:40 a.m. and found “serious fires from the second floor of the house,” including three.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenny told reporters, “This is undoubtedly one of the saddest days in the history of our city, with so many people lost in such a tragic way.
Non-functional smoke detectors
Philadelphia firefighters arrived at the scene around 6:40 a.m. and found “serious fires from the second floor of the house,” including three. They said it took 50 minutes to bring the fire under control.
Photo by Matt Roork, Associated Press
There were four smoke detectors, but none worked, “said Craig Murphy, a spokesman for the fire department.
A tragic fire broke out in a small building in the city’s central and residential neighborhoods of Fairmont, one of Philadelphia’s great museums.
US media pictures show the building sitting in the middle of a row of small houses, along a block that turns into a small street. Many windows and firefighting ladders come out, where they are completely black, as well as some part of the roof.
There were four smoke detectors, but none worked.
Fire Department spokesman Craig Murphy
He said “a very large number of people” were living in a very small number of apartments.
According to a police source quoted by the local daily Philadelphia Inquirer, the building has two apartments.
According to Craig Murphy, eight people were able to evacuate the scene of the fire and two others were hospitalized.
Photo by Monica Herndon, The Philadelphia Inquirer. By the Associated Press
Eight people were able to evacuate the scene of the fire and two others were hospitalized.
“We cannot judge the number of people who lived in this building,” the mayor added.
Firefighters and the town hall announced that an investigation was underway to find out under what circumstances the fires started.
“It’s not necessarily considered suspicious, but we have everyone on the bridge because of the scale of this fire,” a fire department spokesman told reporters.
In December 2017, a fire around the Bronx in New York City killed 12 people, including four children, making it the deadliest city in 25 years. A three-and-a-half-year-old girl is excited about playing with a gas stove.
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