Fire officials say New York City's deadliest fire in a quarter-century was caused by a 3-year-old boy playing with the burners on a kitchen stove. FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro says the boy, who had a history of playing with the stove, screamed to alert his mom to the fire around 7pm Thursday, reports CNN.
The family fled the 25-unit apartment building in the Bronx and left their first-floor door open, causing flames to quickly spread into the century-old building's stairwell, which acted "like a chimney," Nigro says. Though the building was cited for defective smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in August, per the Los Angeles Times, "it does not appear that there was anything problematic about the building," Mayor Bill de Blasio said on his weekly radio show Friday, per the New York Daily News. "It seems like a horrible, tragic accident."
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