A Boy’s Scream, a Door Ajar and 12 Dead in a Bronx Fire
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[URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/nyregion/deadliest-bronx-fire-children-12-dead.html?src=trending"]source[/URL]
[QUOTE]The 3-year-old boy in the kitchen screamed. His mother ran in from the bathroom. He had been playing with the knobs of the stove again. With flames jumping through the kitchen, she scooped up the boy and a 2-year-old child and ran into the cold. She left her first-floor apartment door ajar behind her.
The fire flashed out into the hallway of the five-story building in the Bronx on Thursday night. The stairwell became in effect a chimney. The fire climbed up, up, up, seeking air. Confronted with a hallway inferno, residents upstairs retreated and threw open their windows, giving the fire more oxygen, before they crowded onto fire escapes, screaming in several languages.
Others, along the side and back of the building, where the fire began, could not even get to their fire escape.
When all the dead were counted, there were 12, making the fire at 2363 Prospect Avenue in the Belmont neighborhood New York City’s deadliest in 27 years. Four other people were critically injured, “fighting for their lives right now,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday.
The fire broke out on the coldest night of the year, and the first firefighters to the scene [URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/nyregion/bronx-fire-cold-weather.html"]could not get water[/URL] from the hydrant in front of the burning building. It was frozen.[/QUOTE]
[URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/nyregion/bronx-fire-cold-weather.html?action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article"]In Deadly Bronx Blaze, Responders Battled Fire and Ice[/URL]
[QUOTE]
The frozen hydrant in front of the burning building. The icy steps tripping up firefighters as they carried people out. The frigid front and rear fire escapes cramped with dozens of people clambering to safety.
A brutal chill Thursday night made battling [URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/nyregion/deadliest-bronx-fire-children-12-dead.html?_r=0"]a fast-moving fire that killed 12 people in the Bronx[/URL] all the more difficult for emergency responders. Fighting fires is always a challenge, fire officials said, but low temperatures can be especially problematic, leading to frozen equipment, firefighter fatigue and unseen hazards.
The Fire Department responded to the fire, at 2363 Prospect Avenue in the Belmont neighborhood, three minutes after the first emergency call was made Thursday night. Firefighters rushed to a hydrant located directly in front of the building, but it was frozen, said Lt. Mickey Conboy, a 32-year veteran who was on the scene. After sending a signal that they had no water, they rushed to connect to a working hydrant up the block, while a second ladder company ran into the building.
Temperatures had fallen into the teens after several days of below-freezing weather, and firefighters were wearing their normal thermal gloves to protect them from the heat, although it doubled for the cold, Lieutenant Conboy said.
Still, the gloves were of little use inside the building. The railings were so hot from the fire they could not hold on, and the marble stairs cracked from the heat. Soon, he said, the cold produced a different effect: The stairways iced over, and firefighters began slipping and falling.[/QUOTE]
[URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/nyregion/bronx-fire-victims-died-family.html"]After Saving Many From Fire, Soldier Died Trying to Rescue One More[/URL]
[QUOTE]
Emmanuel Mensah was a handsome, strongly built young man in his late 20s who immigrated to the Bronx from Ghana five years ago. He joined the Army National Guard but returned to his apartment on Prospect Avenue in December, after graduating from boot camp with the rank of private first class.
And on Thursday night, he lost his life trying to save people from his furiously burning apartment building, one of 12 people to die in the blaze.
“He brought four people out,” said his uncle, Twum Bredu, who lives next door. “When he went to bring a fifth person out, the fire caught up with him.”
Private Mensah was found in Apartment 15, his uncle said, but he lived in Apartment 11, with a friend of his father’s who was at home with his wife and four children.
Private Mensah, a decorated soldier who had been awarded a medal for marksmanship and was planning to join the military police, got that family to safety, then pulled out four more people, his uncle said, before returning to the building.
He never emerged; the authorities said he died of smoke inhalation.
The fire cut a deadly path through the building, with four children among the victims.[/QUOTE]
sorry for the wall, but these three articles are closely related. RIP all the victims.
Shouldn't there be signs around of the proper procedure when a fire breaks out?
This is pretty much a worst case scenario, where people accelerate the fire and forget to isolate it.
[QUOTE=LAMB SAUCE;53021310]Shouldn't there be signs around of the proper procedure when a fire breaks out?
This is pretty much a worst case scenario, where people accelerate the fire and forget to isolate it.[/QUOTE]
Most people who end up in these situations only want to get the fuck out. They'd stomp on a fallen fellow rather than help him up
[thumb]http://content.king5.com/photo/2017/06/16/KING_lakewoodduplex_02_1497606349788_9825560_ver1.0.jpg[/thumb]
yearly reminder to always shut doors in event of a fire to help keep it isolated
Man, I do not envy that 3-year-old kid. This is going to haunt him for the rest of his life.
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