A devastating morning inferno claimed the lives of four people, three of whom were children, at a home in the Bronx, FDNY officials said Sunday.
The fire started around 6 a.m. in a multi-level residence on Quimby Avenue near Castle Hill Avenue in the Unionport section, according to department officials.
Two children were discovered in the residence and pronounced dead at the scene. A third child and an adult transported from the scene did not survive.
Police said the youngest victim was just 10 months old. The other victims were 10- and 12 years-old boys, and a 22-year-old man. The city's medical examiner will determine their causes of death.
Get Tri-state area news and weather forecasts to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York newsletters.
A man and woman also hurt in the fire were still in the hospital late Sunday.
"When I come out, I see fire, I see this man just panicking, just screaming for his family. He said 'my kids, my kids are all up there help!'" neighbor Carla Cornielle recalled.
Corneille witnessed the fire grow stronger, and the family's father more desperate in the minutes before firefighters arrived on scene.
News
"I gave him the hammer. He was trying to break the door with the hammer, but he couldn't, so he tried to break the window next to it," she said.
Mayor Eric Adams spoke with the family's father Sunday afternoon to tell him the city would help with the burials.
"He lost his children and it's extremely painful. This is a block heavy Yemenis community, the block and the community is going to rally around this family," Adams said.
It's not yet clear what sparked the blaze, but officials said responding crews found heavy fire on the second floor of the home. More than 100 firefighters and EMS workers were dispatched to the building.
"Units arrived in a little more than four minutes," FDNY Assistant Chief Kevin Brennan said at the scene. "We had heavy fire on the second floor, venting out almost every window, and also good fire condition on the rear of the first floor."
The adjoining home was damaged as well, but no one living inside suffered any injuries. The investigation is ongoing.
