Mayor: Child playing with stove likely started deadly Bronx fire

A 3-year-old boy playing with the burners on a gas stove caused the fire that swept through a Bronx apartment building, killing four children and eight adults, officials said Friday.

“It seems like a horrible, tragic accident,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on WNYC radio.

The Thursday night blaze in Belmont — the deadliest in New York City in more than a quarter-century — started in the kitchen of a first-floor apartment and quickly spread, according to Daniel A. Nigro, the city fire commissioner.

As flames and smoke began filling the kitchen, the boy screamed and his mother, who was in another room, grabbed him and her 2-year-old son and fled, Nigro said.

They survived, but left the apartment door open, allowing the fire to use the stairwell as a “chimney” and race through the five-story building at 2363 Prospect Ave., Nigro said.

“Unfortunately, it’s the worst of circumstances that the fire beginning on the first floor set up a situation where it spread rapidly upward — accidental from everything we can see,” said de Blasio, adding that there appeared to be nothing wrong with the building that would have contributed to the tragedy.

Killed in the fire were four young children, including a 1-year-old girl — and four members of a single family.

Elaine Williams, who lives on the first floor, said she lost her daughter, sister and two nieces. She said her brother-in-law was badly burned and remained hospitalized in a coma.

Williams said she was at work at the time of the fire and rushed to the hospital after learning the news.

“Standing right here my soul is gone,” she said Friday near her charred home. “Four in one family? C’mon now. I don’t wish that on my worst enemy.”

Relatives and police identified the victims as Williams’ daughter, Shawntay Young, 19; her sister, Karen Stewart Francis, 37; and nieces Charmela Francis, 7, and Kylie Francis, 2.

Police said another resident, Maria Batiz, 58, also died in the fire.

The remaining victims had not been named pending identification or family notification.

Four other residents were critically injured and about 25 families were displaced. Officials were investigating whether smoke detectors in the building were working.

Nigro said the boy who started the fire had a history of playing with the burners on the stove.

“Before the mother knew it, this fire had gotten a hold of the kitchen. A lot of fire, a lot of smoke,” he said.

“The stairway acted like a chimney. It took the fire so quickly upstairs that people had very little time to react. They couldn’t get back down the stairs; those that tried perished.”

City officials said Friday that the search of the building, which has 25 apartments, was complete.

Nigro said firefighters were on the scene — about a block from the west side of the Bronx Zoo — within minutes, shortly before 7 p.m. In frigid temperatures with wind chill making it feel below zero, 175 firefighters battled the five-alarm blaze.

According to property records, the building and the adjacent one are owned by D & A Equities, Inc. The two buildings have a combined 37 open violations, according to city housing records.

Twenty-eight of those violations are defined as “hazardous” and include inadequate supply of gas to the kitchen to several apartments and faulty electrical outlets at the adjacent building. Violations from August 2017 show overdue repair or replacement of carbon monoxide and smoke detectors on the first floor.

“We are shocked and saddened at the loss of life and injuries which occurred,” Ronn Torossian, a spokesman for D & A Equities said in a statement Friday. “Our prayers and thoughts are with the families affected.”

The landlord is working with the city and other agencies, he said.

Six firefighters and one emergency medical technician also were treated for minor injuries, a fire official said.

“It’s one of the worst losses to life in a fire in many years,” de Blasio said from the scene about 10 p.m. “Thank God, because of the FDNY’s quick response . . . at least 12 people were rescued and will survive.”

The fire was the deadliest since the 1990 arson-caused inferno at the Happy Land Social Club — less than a mile from Thursday’s blaze — killed 87 people.

A March 2007 blaze that tore through a four-story home in the Bronx, sparked by an overheated electrical cord, killed 10 people, nine of them children.

City officials opened a nearby school on Crotona Avenue to serve as a shelter and information center. The Red Cross was on the scene.

Michael de Vulpillieres, spokesman for the American Red Cross in Greater New York, said no one was able to return to the building and about 16 families have registered with them.

Javier Negron, a longtime Bronx resident, carried a bag filled with coats, jackets and sneakers to the site Friday.

He said the news of the fire “broke my heart, especially since it happened this time of the year. With all the chaos in the world, I decided I could help.”

By Joie Tyrrell

joie.tyrrell@newsday.com,@JoieTyrrell,

Joie Tyrrell is a Long Island native and covers education for Newsday, where she has worked since 1998.