Toddler killed in Bronx apartment fire; 2 young children in critical condition
FORDHAM, The Bronx (WABC) -- A mother lost her youngest child, and two of her other children remain in critical condition after a devastating fire at an apartment building in the Fordham section of the Bronx on Monday.
Seven people were injured in total.
The child who died has been identified as one-year-old Liam Parks. His six-year-old twin siblings were hurt in the blaze.
FDNY officials say the fire started just before 3:40 p.m. at a six-story apartment building at 2609 Bainbridge Ave. and East 193rd and 194th streets.
A neighbor told Eyewitness News that the flames broke out in the second-floor apartment of a woman with four children, adding that the mom went to the store and left her eldest daughter to watch over her three other kids, a toddler and a pair of twins.
When the fire started, a neighbor says he tried to help and the smoke was too strong to get through the front, so he tried getting in through the back of the apartment but had trouble.
"The mother ran out of her apartment screaming, 'fire, fire,' as flames shot from the second-floor window," said a neighbor named Manuel.
Manuel says the woman had one child with her, but there was too much smoke between her and her three youngest. She needed help finding them.
Manuel said he tried. He said it was hot, and very smoky. He opened the door, but the smoke overpowered him.
It would take firefighters battling through the smoke that had filled the hallway to get the three smallest children out. They were in critical condition.
A delivery worker captured the efforts to revive one of them on the sidewalk.
"I felt really sad ... I think maybe one of the kids died. I feel sad," said Radi Obad.
The children were taken to St. Barnabas, but the youngest child, Liam, died from his injuries. His siblings remain in critical condition.
Two adults and three firefighters are also recovering from non-life-threatening injuries.
More than 20 units, and 80 fire and EMS personnel responded to the scene, placing the fire under control about an hour later around 4:40 p.m.
FDNY officials believe that doors left open as occupants fled may have helped the fire spread, as has been the case in several recent fires in New York City.
"We've had several of these fires lately where the occupants of the fire apartment have fled the building and left the fire apartment open. That appears to be the case here again," said FDNY Chief of Operations Malcolm Moore.
While closing the door may not have changed the tragic outcome in that apartment, officials say it would have prevented the oxygen-hungry flames from sweeping up the hallway, causing more injury and damage.
"The minute you close the door, you give everyone else in the building an opportunity to flee, and you give yourself more time to flee in not allowing the fire to chase behind you," Moore said.
The American Red Cross says they have registered 38 people for emergency assistance.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
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