Child critically injured, 4 hospitalized in Bronx apartment fire
CO-OP CITY, The Bronx (WABC) -- A child was critically injured and a family was hospitalized after a fire broke out in a Bronx apartment building.
Approximately 75 firefighters responded to the scene on the fifth floor of the Co-op City building on Baychester Avenue just before 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Five victims -- a father, mother and their three children -- were treated for smoke inhalation, officials said. One child was critically injured but is expected to survive. The conditions of the rest of the family are unknown. Their identities have not been released.
One witness heard someone scream "help me" during the incident but couldn't get to them because of the smoke.
When emergency responders arrived, they found a man was unconscious in the hallway and a raging fire in the adjacent apartment's kitchen. They crawled under the fire to get to the family and found them locked inside a bathroom, where a child was in respiratory arrest.
Officials said the family's apartment sustained significant damage, and they won't be able to return to it.
The fire has been brought under control.
Firefighters searched the fifth-floor hallway and stairwell and found no other victims.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but officials said the fire was in the kitchen when emergency responders arrived on scene.
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