At least 14 of the 17 victims killed in a Sunday morning fire at a Bronx apartment building have been identified. They range in age from 5 to 50 years old.
The names of the 14 victims are as follows: Sera Janneh (27, female); Seydou Toure (12, male); Haouwa Mahamadou (5, female); Haji Dukary (49, male); Haja Dukureh (37, female); Mustapha Dukureh (12, male); Mariam Dukureh (11, female); Fatoumata Dukureh (5, female); Fatoumata Drammeh (50, female); Foutmala Drammeh (21, female); Muhammed Drammeh (12, male); Nyumaaisha Drammeh (19, female); Omar Jambang (6, male); and Fatoumata Tunkara (43, female).
All the victims reportedly died of smoke inhalation, according to WABC-TV.
A malfunctioning space heater in a third-floor duplex in the 19-story Twin Parks North West apartment building started the five-alarm blaze, New York City's fire commissioner said. The fire injured over 60 people, including 32 sustaining life-threatening injuries. It took roughly 200 firefighters one hour to extinguish the blaze, the New York Post reported.
"This is going to be one of the worst fires we have witnessed here in modern times in the city of New York," Mayor Eric Adams said during a press briefing shortly after the fire.
The apartment building was constructed in 1972. It had 120 units and no external fire escapes. Rather, it had internal stairwells for emergency use.
Dozens of residents told media outlets that the building's fire alarms went off so frequently that they ignored them, assuming they were false alarms, when the fire first began.
However, a spokesperson for the property owners said the smoke alarms had no known issues. Residents smoking in the stairwells also occasionally set off the alarms, the spokesperson said.
"It appears that the fire alarm system worked as designed," the spokesperson added.
Nevertheless, a Bronx couple that survived the fire have filed a class-action lawsuit suing the city and the building's owners for $1 billion in damages and medical expenses.
The lawsuit alleges that property managers didn't ensure that fire doors, smoke detectors, fire escapes, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and the emergency intercom system were all properly functioning at the time of the fire.
The lawsuit also accuses public housing officials at the city's Department of Buildings of not making improvements to the building, despite knowing its poor conditions.
The building's ownership group told Newsweek that it will continue assisting with investigations into the fire.
While residents return to the building to collect their personals, numerous organizations have begun fundraising to aid the fire's victims. As of Monday, over $240,000 had been raised in online donations to help the victims.
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