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Published 12:00 06 Jan 2022 GMT
A fiery blaze has killed 12 people including eight children after it engulfed a Philadelphia apartment block, The Guardian reports.
The fire broke out at around 6.40 AM on Wednesday morning at a three-story rowhouse in Fairmont, Philadelphia. There were four working smoke alarms in the building, which had been converted into two apartments.
However, the fire marshall said that none of the alarms operated.
Officials originally said that 13 people had died in the blaze, but updated their statement on Wednesday evening to confirm that 12 people were killed in the blaze, including eight children. Identities of the victims have not yet been revealed.
Per The Sun, two more people were left in a critical condition: a man, 36, and a child, who were both rushed to hospital.
Reports state that the man - who had second-degree burns to his legs - was then stabilized. However, the child could not be saved and died shortly after arriving at the ER.
The cause of the fire is still unknown. Firefighters and police arrived on the scene to find flames coming out of second-story windows - an area believed to be a kitchen.
It took less than an hour to bring the blaze under control. First deputy fire commissioner Craig Murphy described what he had seen at a news conference later that morning.
"It was terrible. I’ve been around for 35 years now and this is probably one of the worst fires I have ever been to," he said.
He went on to describe how 26 people were believed to have been living in the apartment block - 18 upstairs and a further 8 on the lower floor.
According to Murphy, this was a "tremendous amount of people to be living in a duplex."
He finished by saying that the fire was not currently being considered suspicious, though investigations into its cause will continue.
Since the firetrucks departed, neighbors have begun leaving candles and flowers outside the destroyed apartment block.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said the blaze was "without a doubt one of the most tragic days in our city’s history," adding "losing so many kids is just devastating. Keep these babies in your prayers."
Kenney went on to say that while 26 was a large number of people to be living in a single block, onlookers should refrain from drawing judgments about the incident.
"You don’t know the circumstances of each and every family and maybe there were relatives and family that needed to be sheltered," he said.
"Obviously the tragedy happened, and we all mourn for it. But we can’t make judgment on the number of people living in the house because sometimes people just need to be indoors."
