At least 23 people, including nine children, were injured in a Bronx fire early Tuesday morning, the FDNY said.
The fire started in a furniture store on the first floor of a four-story building on the corner of Commonwealth and Bronx River avenues at about 5:30 a.m., according to the FDNY. It then spread to the apartments on the floors above.
Twenty-two civilians and one firefighter had non-life-threatening injuries, officials said. At least nine of the civilians were children, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.
“They will all be OK, thankfully,” he said.
Smoke billowed from the windows of the building, near the border of the Parkchester and Van Nest neighborhoods, for several hours as more than 200 firefighters fought the blaze in frigid weather. The fire was finally placed under control at 1:50 p.m., the FDNY said.
Icicles could be seen hanging from the power lines and fire escapes as water from the hoses froze.
The cause of the fire was under investigation.
A total of 11 families were displaced, officials said, including 29 adults and 11 children.
There are five open Department of Buildings violations for the building, including multiple cases of construction without a permit, according to city records.
The fire comes just days after a fatal fire in another Bronx building. The blaze, caused by a 3-year-old playing with a stove, took the lives of 12 people.
