The Bronx fire that left two people dead and several others hurt Monday morning spread from a first-floor apartment after the door was left open, an FDNY official said.
Firefighters responded to the five-story building on Hoffman Street, near East 187th Street, in Belmont, at about 1:35 a.m., a spokesman said.
The fire started in an apartment on the first floor, but spread to the hallway and floors above when the door of the apartment was left open, FDNY Assistant Chief Roger Sakowich said.
“We had several people trapped on the second floor and they were removed by our members,” he said.
Eleven people were taken to area hospitals, police said. Two unidentified men were later pronounced dead, two women were in critical condition and seven people, including FDNY personnel, were stable, police said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Just months before, a fire in the same Bronx neighborhood killed 13 people. That fire spread the same way when the door to the apartment where it started was left open, officials said at the time.
