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New York mayor revises death toll to 17 in Bronx apartment fire, calls tragedy ‘unspeakable’

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  • Several survivors were in critical condition and authorities warned the death toll could rise.
  • A malfunctioning space heater apparently sparked the 5-alarm fire.

NEW YORK – Cleanup crews in white suits cleared debris Monday from the high-rise Bronx apartment building where choking smoke from an accidental blaze a day earlier killed 17 people, including eight children.

Authorities had initially put the death toll at 19. But Mayor Eric Adams, calling the tragedy at the Twin Parks North West complex an “evolving crisis,” updated the numbers at a news conference Monday.

“There was a bit of a double count,” Fire Department of New York Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. 

Dozens of people remained hospitalized from the nation’s most deadly apartment fire in almost 40 years. Thirteen survivors were in critical condition, and Nigro warned that the death toll could rise. The dead included children as young as 4, City Council Member Oswald Feliz said.

Adams, who described the blaze as one of the “worst fires in modern times,” ordered flags to remain at half staff until sunset Wednesday.

“This is an unspeakable tragedy,” Adams said. “It is not going to define us. It is going to show our resiliency.”

A malfunctioning space heater sparked the five-alarm fire Sunday in a duplex apartment on the second and third floors of the 19-story building, Nigro said. The apartment’s front door and a door on the 15th floor should have been self-closing, but the doors malfunctioned and stayed fully open, allowing smoke to billow in the stairwells, Nigro said.

Adams told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that “there may have been a maintenance issue” with the apartment’s front door, which will be investigated. Nigro said the door was not obstructed.

Call to action:Tragedy in Bronx apartment building renews demands for fire-safety legislation

The building’s owner, Bronx Park Phase III Preservation LLC, released a statement saying all doors in the building are self-closing, including stairwell and apartment doors, as required by code. There are no open violations or complaints related to self-closing doors at the property, the company said.